Moving on Once Again
by SkylarSon
Summary: Story told from Grimmjow's POV. Grimmjow is sent to buy stuff for his mom and things go wrong. He meets a girl named Nel in a bloody diner and they're inseparable. Together they team up to get rid of The White Cloaks, which the leader turns out to be none other than Aizen! Eventually Grimmjow/Nel. Suckish summary I know. Please read and review! Rated M for language and violence.
1. Moving on once again

**Hey guys! I know maybe some of you have read my story, 'Tomorrow's Wasteland' and I know I haven't uploaded in a long time (please don't kill me!) and sorry about that. Just having a case of writer's block. This story is going to be somewhat like 'Tomorrow's Wasteland' minus the cannibals and the saiyans. Anyways! Onto the story!**

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**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.**

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**_Moving on once again-_**

_I ran as fast as I fucking could through the endless wheat field, turning to look back every now and then. It seemed that every time I looked back, the men in the white cloaks were closer than the last time. My heart feels like it's going to explode any minute now; I am very exhausted. I trip and fall over a rock but I get up quickly and continue running towards the forest; my only salvation. The sky looks as if a storm is coming, dark grey clouds along with the rumble of thunder is heard. I reach the outskirts, jumping slightly in fright as I see more cloaked figures standing next to the trees. Broken branches tear at my black cloak, gripping the material and clawing at my skin, but I keep moving forward. I reach the end of the forest and I see an abandoned van. I lean on it and try to catch my breath, looking ahead of me. I wince with every breath I take; earlier, I had been attacked and wounded by the same people. I hear a twig snap and I look up, my heart sinking; they had caught up to me. Suddenly, I fall back as the the door to the van suddenly opens and a pair of arms seize me. I scream and fight but it is no use. The white cloaks approach and help whoever is behind me. They tie my arms and bound my feet with rope. I am thrown into the floor of the van, where a cloaked figure holds a bat. I hear someone speak to me, but I can't tell what they are saying. My blue eyes are focused on the figure in front of me. Seconds later, they swing their bat and everything goes black..._

I jolt up as I wake up. My heart is still beating and it feels like I've ran a mile. The sun is shining brightly and I shield my eyes slightly. I sit on the edge of my bed, pondering. What does that dream mean? What is it trying to tell me? This is the fifth time I've had the same dream in the past month or so. I sit there for a while before putting on a white shirt and a pair of faded jeans. I make my way to the kitchen where my mother is making breakfast. She looks at me and smiles.

"Good morning Grimmy! Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah I did." I replied lying; I didn't want my mother to find out about my dream. I was about to sit down when my mother walked over to me and handed me a ten dollar bill. I looked up at her confused.

"I want you to go over to the next town and stop by Mable's to get me some flour and eggs."

"Sure, I'll go." I got up and slipped on a pair of black tennis shoes. I walked outside and made my way to the shed and got out my bike. I rode down the dirt road that led to the town. See, I live in the country where the long grass grows and the fields seem endless. I stop suddenly as I remembered the wheat field in my dream. The image is there, never to be erased. I shake my head and make my way to Mable's. Mable is an old woman who runs the business; she reminds me of a very kind grandmother. Not only is it a small store, but a local diner as well. As I made my way to town, I noticed that the farther I went, the less birds were heard. Also, there were clouds in the distance. Dark, thick storm clouds loomed over the small town. Fearing that I might not make it before it rained, I pedaled faster towards my destination. I stopped suddenly as the heavy smell of smoke reached my nose. I stood there, unsure of what to do. Ever since I was a small child, my senses were unnaturally sharper than most kids my age. Now, at the age of sixteen, my senses had gotten way sharper since then.

I stood there, listening, hoping that the smoke was only grilling gone wrong or something. My heart sunk, as I heard a faint cry and gunshots from somewhere in the small town. I began to run, forgetting about my bike. As I neared the first homes, I noticed broken windows and bashed in doors. The thick, irony smell of blood lingered on the streets. I kept going forward, and rain started pouring down on the bloody street. My heart pounded with a mixture of fear and anxiety. There was something familiar about the scene in front of me and then it hit me. _The dream! _I thought, _maybe this is what was going to happen. _My foot crunches on broken glass and I stop to look around me. _It's quiet, almost too quiet..._

I break into a run as I hear the sudden sound of glass breaking around me, I turn around and I instantly feel my heart sink. Chasing me, were three figures in white. _Just like in the dream I had! _The adrenaline coursing through my veins made me push farther, gaining distance between me and my attackers. _'Shit, Shit, Shit, SHIT! If they catch me I'm a fucking dead man!' _I kept running and eventually reached the small downtown and stopped when I didn't hear footsteps behind me. Surprisingly enough, the cloaked figures were gone and I walked quietly, my footsteps echoing throughout the deserted town. I reached Mable's only to find the large glass window shattered and smears of blood on the tiled floor.

My stomach lurched as I saw a body slumped over a stove that was still turned on. I heard the sound of pots and pans falling and saw a girl, around my age, sitting up. _'Funny, she has aquamarine hair. I wonder if it's natural like my blue hair?' _I watched as her eyes widened and looked around her, seeing the burning body. Her eyes began to water and she frantically rubbed the tears away. She still hadn't noticed me and cautiously stood up, holding a large frying pan close to her. She made her way to the stove and turned it off. I decided to show myself and I walked towards her. The sound of glass crunched under my shoe and she looked up, fear in her eyes. She slightly calmed when she saw me and narrowed her eyes.

"Who are you and what do you want?" She asked quickly, her words laced with anger. I outstretched my hand in a polite manner.

"The name's Grimmjow." I replied nicely and I watched as she studied my hand. She looked back up and nodded to me, walking a couple steps away. Leaving me with my arm stretched out.

"Nel." She said flatly and I looked around and put my hands in my jean pockets and decided to ask her.

"Do you have any idea what happened here?" She looked away for a moment and I saw hurt cross over her features. She looked back at me and looked at me in the eyes.

"They've come. We have to leave before they come back and kill us like they did to everybody else." I cocked my head to the side, not quite understanding. _'They?'_ She let out a frustrated sigh and grabbed my arm.

"I'll explain on the way, but right now we have to get outta here!" She pleaded and I nodded my head in agreement. We ran out of the shop and made our way back to the outskirts of town, before finally slowing down to walk the rest of the way. The rain kept pouring and streaks of thunder bolted across the sky.

"The White Cloaks have started to put their plan into action."

"Their plan?" Now it all made sense. The White Cloaks were always being mentioned on the news. Most of the time they were just making stupid ass threats that no one really seemed to care about.

"They plan on taking over the entire country and kill those who don't join them." I stare at her, wide eyed. _'Damn...guess they weren't kidding.' _

"How do you know that they're actually gonna do that?"

"My brother Starrk has been keeping tabs on them for a while now." She replied calmly before stopping to look at me.

"You should stay with us."

"W-what?" She nodded her head and looked back at the burning town.

"It's not safe here anymore. You should go with me to our base, I'm sure Starrk would like you."

"But what about my mother?"

"Bring her with you," She replied smiling, "my mom would like to have someone new to talk to!" We began walking towards my house and eventually broke into a run as the rain began to intensify. We reached the door and I flung it open.

"Mom!" I called out and ran to the kitchen where I saw her last. She stood up from her chair and looked at me in question.

"Honey what's wrong?" She looked from me to Nel and took note of my wet clothes and Nel's bloody shirt. "Oh my!" She made her way towards Nel. "Are you hurt!?" She asked. Nel looked hesitant before responding.

"It's not my blood." My mother looked at her and then back at me.

"We gotta leave right now mom."

"Grimmjow tell me what's going on right now." She said firmly and narrowed her eyes. Before I could say anything, Nel interrupted and began to tell her all about The White Cloaks. The whole time that Nel was talking, my mother watched flabbergasted and shocked.

"We have to go to the base where the resistance is located before they find this place and destroy it!"

"Just give me some time to pack some belongings."

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Minutes later, we were piling into the somewhat new Volkswagen. Tires screeched as my mother pulled out of the dirt driveway, sending dust and what not in the air. We pretty much packed our clothes, old stuff, and some food to eat on the way.

"So where exactly is the base?" My mother asked as she sped along a dirt road. Nel looked out the front window before saying, "It's three towns over in the West." I blinked a couple of times before asking,

"Uh not to be rude or anything, but what are you doing all the way out here if you live a couple thousand miles away?" Nel got a far away look in her eyes and her hair cascaded down as she brought her knees up and hugged them.

"If you don't wanna talk about it, it's okay..." I said as she wiped her tears away and shook her head.

"N-no it's okay, I'm going to have to tell Starrk anyways. That man you saw on the stove?" She said to me and I nodded my head. She took a shaky deep breath and looked me in the eye, "That man was and is my father."

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**A/N: I know that Grimmjow is kind of OOC, but eventually he'll be the badass we all know and love. So yeah um, please review and tell me what you think so far! Thanks!**


	2. Falling

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.**

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**Warning!: some guts on display! So if you don't like gory stuff, just skip it and continue reading! Though most of the story will be probably a lot more gory than this chapter! Just sayin'!**

**Onto the story!**

**_Falling-_**

_"That man was and is my father." _The words echoed in my head as I looked at her wide-eyed. _Her father!? Oh damn... _I blinked and mentally slapped myself as I said the first thing that came out of my big ass mouth,

"Oh shit! I'm so fucking sorry! I shouldn't have asked! I-"

"Grimmjow! Watch your language young man!" My mother shouted at me from her seat and Nel smiled at me.

"It's okay. Besides, it's best to get it over with now than later." She looked at me as if she was expecting an answer from me.

"R-right." I muttered and inwardly sighed, _'This is gonna be a long ass ride.' _I leaned on my side and rested my head on my arm, using it as a makeshift pillow.

"I'm gonna take a nap. Wake me up when we get there or if something happens." I said yawning in the process. I closed my eyes and welcomed the sudden sleep that consumed me.

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I suddenly woke up feeling stiff, my arm asleep and something warm and heavy that smelled like flowers was on my chest and I began to slowly drift off again.

Wait.

_Warm and heavy? Smells like flowers? Oh my... _I slowly opened my eyes and was met with an abundance of aquamarine hair. _What the hell... _I tried to sit up and winced slightly as pain flared up my arm. _Well shit, now what? I can't move for another ten or more seconds, as for my other arm..._ A sudden blush spread across my face as I realized where my other arm was. I glanced down to see that Nel was clutching my arm tightly to her chest. _Great! Now I'm going to be called a pervert when she wakes up! _I glanced out the window and realized that we were stopped. I looked over to my mother, only to see that she wasn't in the car. I went stiff as I felt cool air near me.

_The door_

_Was_

_Wide_

_Open._

"Nel! Nel!" I whispered loudly and tried waking her up. She stirred and mumbled something, but didn't wake up. I tried one more time and she finally woke up.

"Hng?"

"Nel wake up!" I was done being nice. My mother was _somewhere. _In the dark. Alone. I began to panic as many scenarios swept through my mind. All without a happy ending. Nel suddenly jumped off of me and stared at me with wide eyes. _Shit. Well Grimmjow, prepare your ears for the worse. _I watched as a bright red blush scattered across her cheeks. _Wait? What the hell? Shouldn't she be slapping me and calling me a perv? _I blinked and remembered my current situation. My mother's gone. I grit my teeth and clenched my fists.

"G-grimmjow?" Oh yeah, I forgot.

"Nel what happened before you fell asleep?" She squinted her eyes in concentration.

"Nothing, why?" I nodded my head towards the open car door. Her eyes widened and I tried not to roll my eyes._ So she finally notices. Idiot. What the hell happened to all the fierceness she had back at the diner? _I leaned over to the glove compartment and began fishing around for a flashlight. When I found one, I sat back in my seat and reached under to find the baseball bat that mom always has under the seat. I looked over at Nel, who just stared and I opened my door.

"Where are you going?"

"I'm going to look for my mother."

"Hold on! I'm coming with!" I rolled my eyes and looked out at the dark.

"Suit yourself."

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I couldn't find her. I checked pretty much everywhere, hell even under the car. I glanced up at the tall cornfield. I shuddered. I'd seen too many movies of idiots prancing into cornfields, only to end up getting chopped up in a bag. I do not and I mean do NOT, want to end up as a mass of chopped up limbs and what not with a sprinkle of blue added to the texture. I grimaced and shuddered at the thought. I took another look at the cornfield.

_'Stop being a pussy and get it over with ya idiot!' _I frowned and began to walk forward. The light of the flashlight occasionally bobbing with every step I took. I went into the field, shoulders squared and gripped the metal bat.

"Do you think we'll find her here?" I jumped and whirled around, accidentally flashing Nel directly in the eyes with the flashlight.

"Ow! What the hell is wrong with you Grimmjow!?" She shrieked.

"I can be asking you the same question!" I snapped back. She huffed.

"At least I'm not a lecher. Y-you pervert!" She yelled. I froze and clenched my fists. She began to take a step back as I began to slowly walk towards her. I smirked and laughed.

"Hah! Like lecher and pervert aren't the same shit! Oh and just to clear things up, you were the one all over me while I slept! Not to to mention the fact that you had grabbed my arm while I was asleep and proceeded to hold it against your chest without my consent!" She stared at me wide eyed and I began to walk towards her again. She took a step back and I smirked as an idea popped into my head.

"BOO!" I made to grab her and she yelped as she fell back. I laughed but stopped as I realized that she hadn't fallen back because I scared her. No she tripped on something. I jumped back slightly as I heard Nel scream and I suddenly fell on my ass, dropping the metal bat as she tackled me.

"What the hell Nel?" I tried to get her off of me but she clutched my neck and I winced as I felt my hair getting pulled. I shined the flashlight to where Nel had fallen not ten seconds ago.

My heart stopped.

No.

There on the ground, lied my mother. Or what was left of her. I gagged as I noticed that she had been chopped in half, limbs missing, intestines and organs spewing out from her sliced body. Nel probably heard me gag and let go of me as I leaned to the side and threw up. I sat up when I finished and spat on the dirt. I stood up and went over to my mother's body. My knees felt like giving out as I looked down.

_Hold on._

I squinted and noticed that whatever happened had just taken place recently. My eyes widened in realization.

_Oh fuck.._

I turned to look at Nel, who was turning pale by the second.

"We have to get out of here before whoever did this finds us." I said in a hushed voice. Nel looked up at me and screamed, I whirled around. Not two stalks away were about five people in white cloaks. Their eyes barely visible through the holes where their faces should be and they shined as the light hit them.

_SHIT!_

My mouth fell open but no words came out. I couldn't move my damn legs and I watched stupidly as they raised their blood dripping axes and walked towards us.

_The baseball bat! _I thought and looked over to see that it was a few feet away from me. If only I could reach it.. I mentally shook my head. That won't work out. I'll be dead before I reach the damn thing.

_Run ya dumbass!_

I blinked and reacted without thinking. I turned and sprinted next to Nel and yanked her up by her wrist and dragged her with me. We sprinted back in the direction we had first come in through. I turned my head to look back and saw nothing._ Huh? I_ kept my tight grip on Nel's wrist and I suddenly heard a muffled yell. My eyes widened as I saw a white cloak in my peripheral vision. I ran faster just in time to miss the axe that swung out to my left. I turned one last time and felt a sudden painful jolt in my chest as I saw all of them running behind us.

_FUCK!_


	3. Rather lovely thing

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach, Tite Kubo does**

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**Onwards!**

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We tore through the corn and didn't even think to slow down. As I ran, my foot stepped on something and I didn't want to even think what was on the sole of my shoe. Out of reflex I slowed a bit.

_Big mistake._

I gasped loudly as I felt a tug on the bottom of my t-shirt. Along with a swish that did not feel anything like a corn stalk. A scream rang out next to me.

_Nel! _I thought and looked over to her. My eyes widened as I saw blood all over her white shirt that she had borrowed from my mother.

_And there was lots of it._

"Nel!" She looked at me and I grabbed her wrist pulling her next to me, somehow managing to run faster.

_Damn, if only I could see the car again!_ I almost cried out when we reached the edge of the field and saw the Volkswagen's headlights. We made it out and once again I was surprised to see that they weren't behind us anymore.

_Fuck that, I'm not falling for that type of shit._

I quickly opened the passenger door and helped Nel into her seat. I grimaced as I felt something wet on my hand._ Blood_. I wasted no time and got into the driver's seat and locked the doors. I leaned back on the seat trying to catch my breath. I looked over at Nel and saw that she was doing the same. I closed my eyes and sighed. _Mom? Why?_ I brought up my arm and covered my face._ Now what am I going to do? Mom was all I had left_. I began to chew on my thumb and stopped. My thoughts were stopped as I heard Nel scream. I turned to look at her and jumped back slightly as I saw a cloaked figure pressing onto Nel's window.

_Shit._

I slammed my foot on the gas and the car screeched down the road. I looked into the mirror and slowed a bit when I saw that there was no one following us. I glanced over at Nel and saw that she was turning pale.

"Yo, you want me to pull over and take care of your injury?" I watched in fascination as Nel turned a bright red and shook her head frantically.

"N-no that's okay. I'll be fine."

"If you say so I guess." I kept driving and it felt that the farther I drove, the lighter the sky got. I also didn't realize how far we'd gotten until I passed a sign that said _'Welcome to Kansas'_. It was then that I felt a knot in my stomach, not sure what I was going to do. I looked at Nel and saw that she was asleep. I pulled over and leaned over to wake her up.

"Hey Nel! Am I even going in the right direction?"

"..."

"Nel?" I leaned closer and pinched her cheeks, startling her. I jumped back as she began to flail her arms.

"Hey! Can you stop doing that?!" I said while pinning her arms to her sides. She stopped and looked at me with her amber eyes.

"What?" I ran a hand through my blue hair and pointed outside.

"Where's the base located at?"

"Well, where are we?"

"I don't know. Somewhere in Kansas I guess." Her eyes narrowed in concentration and looked back to me.

"Can I drive?"

"No."

"Wha? Why? You know that's not fair Grimm!"

'_Grimm?!' _I looked at her with a frown.

"Don't call me that."

"How come?"

"I don't like that."

"Why?" I felt like tearing out my hair. _'Was she always this annoying? For someone who's sixteen, she acts like a little kid!'_

"Can I drive the car?"

"..."

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Ten minutes later, I slammed into my window as Nel made a sharp turn into a lonely highway.

_'Note to self; never let Nel drive.'_ I rubbed at my arm as I felt it begin to throb.

"Do you even know where you're going?" I said to her and she nodded.

"Actually I do."

"Hmm surprise, surprise! Nel knows where she's going for once!" I said in a sarcastic tone.

"Oh shut the hell up Grimm! Sheesh! Are you always this much of a jerk?!" She said yelling at me. I opened my mouth to say something, but stopped short when I saw her wince.

"Hey, are ya sure you're okay?" She blushed again and waved it off.

"I'm okay! Trust me Grimmy!" I felt my eye twitch as she said that. _'Grimmy, huh?'_

"Pull over." She looked at me with wide eyes.

"Wha-?"

"Just pull over Nel." She pulled over and looked at me as I got out of the car.

"W-where are you going?" She asked and also got out. I opened the trunk and got out the first aid kit that my mother had packed. I opened the passenger door and motioned for Nel to sit. She looked at me in confusion.

"Sit." She hesitated for a while before finally sitting with her bloody back turned to me.

"Don't freak out on me or anything, kay?"

"Why would I freak out?"

"Well I mean I would flip out if a stranger guy began to lift my shirt up if I was a girl."

"O-oh."

"Anyways, I'm going to need you to grab the front of your shirt so that your chest doesn't get exposed or som-" I grunted as she elbowed my stomach.

"You idiot! I'm wearing a bra!" She was looking at me and blushing madly, while I tried not to laugh.

"Sorry okay! I didn't kno-"

"You know what!?" She said and took her shirt off. Now _I _was blushing. I looked away and Nel sighed before turning around again.

"Just get it over with Grimmjow." I began to take out ointments and bandages.

"Just a small warning, but this is going to sting a little." I pressed the cloth to the wound on her back. She jumped slightly and I saw her grip the seat, making little crescent marks on the leather seat.

"Sorry Nel, but I gotta do this to make sure it doesn't get infected."

"Just hurry up." She said through clenched teeth. I began to apply the ointments and wrapping the bandage around when I suddenly stopped and blushed. Nel noticed and tried turning her head to look.

"What's wrong Grimmy?"

"U-uh I think you should wrap the rest of the bandage."

"Hold on! Why me?" I looked away and blushed.

"Cause if I did, you'd make your brother put a bullet in my head for passing my hand around your chest." She was quiet for a minute before answering.

"That's okay."

"..." I was quiet for a moment and blinked.

Once.

Twice.

"No Nel! That's not okay! You don't just let some guy grope your chest!"

"But you're not '_some guy'_! Besides! I can't reach my back! So you'll have to help me anyways!"

"Fine! But you're going to have to take care of the front!"

"Okay." My eyes widened as her hands snaked back and began to unhook her bra.

"Wait! What the hell are you doing?!" My face was now turning fifty shades of red.

"Taking my bra off so that it doesn't bother me with the bandages. Why?"

"Nevermind." I handed her the bandage and she began to wrap it around her chest. She passed it back to me to wrap around her back. We did that for at least ten minutes before finally finishing. I got up and stretched my back, walking towards the trunk and pulled out one of my large hoodies. I walked back to Nel and handed it to her, she looked at me confused. I rolled my eyes.

"Put it on."

"But it's yours."

"So?"

"It's green."

"And? Who cares? Just put it on will ya?"

"I can't."

"Why?"

"My arms hurt." I groaned and pinched the bridge of my nose.

"Can you help me put it on Grimmy?" She said giggling and I felt a vein pop.

"No! I refuse to play your silly little mind games Nel!" I saw her eyes beginning to water and her lower lip quivering. _Shit_. I sighed and unzipped the damn thing, grabbed one arm and put it in the sleeve. I did the same thing for the other arm and zipped the hoodie back up. The next thing I knew, my lungs were getting crushed as Nel bear hugged me.

"Gah! Let go of me Nel! I can't breathe!" I wheezed out as she kept hugging me. _'More like killing me.'_ She finally let go of me and I took a large amount of air in.

"You okay Grimmy?"

"Does it fucking look like I'm okay!? You tried to smother me for crying out loud!"

"Awe I'm sorry! Nel didn't mean to hurt Grimmy!"

_What. _

_The. _

_Hell. _

_Now she's talking in the third person! _

My eye twitched again and I got out of the passenger area. Nel got out and started making her way to the driver's seat.

"No way Nel. Nope. You're not driving with your injuries!"

"But you don't know where to go!" She argued.

"Uhm, you can point out the directions, right?" She sighed and got in the passenger seat.

_'Score one for Grimmjow!'_ I thought to myself and got in.

* * *

_I think she's doing this on purpose_. It's been around twenty minutes and I think we're lost.

"Make a turn here." I turned and kept driving.

"Wait! I meant the next turn!" I slammed on the brakes and pulled over. I turned to look at her.

"Look, I'm getting pretty tired of your shit Nel! Make up your mind and stop acting like a five year old!" I got out and walked to the passenger side and opened her door.

"Out."

"But-"

"Out. You're driving." She got out and went to the driver's seat. She looked at me apologetically.

"Sorry that I made you angr-"

"No, I'm the one who should be apologizing. When we were in the cornfield and not too long ago, I'm sorry that I was acting like a woman on her per-"

"Okay! I get it! You don't have to say that. I should be apologizing for a lot of thin-"

"Let's just get to the base. I don't know about you but, I kinda wanna take a hot bath and go to sleep on an actual bed." I said as I leaned back on the seat.

"Well I think the car needs to get refilled soon or else we're going to be walking for the next thousand miles." She drove for a while longer and turned to a place that looked like a motel.

"Wait, you know this is a motel right?"

"I know. There's a gas station on the other side."

"Oh." She parked the car next to a gas pump and got out.

"I'm going to go use the restroom, while you fill. Kay?"

Before I could say anything else, she took off in the direction of the station. I groaned and got out, making my way over to the pump. I leaned against the car while I waited until I heard it stop, paid and got back in the car. Honestly, I've never felt time go by this slow. I looked out my window over to where Nel had gone.

_'__Seriously, how long does it take to take a piss?'_ I fumbled with the knob on the stereo, looking for a song to listen to. I almost gave up until _Bon Jovi _blared through the speakers. I leaned back and closed my eyes for what felt like two seconds when I heard someone tap on my window. I opened my eyes almost expecting to see one of the white cloaked fuckers or the gas station dude. Instead, Nel was on the other side and held out her hand, keys jingling. I turned to look at the area somewhat under the steering wheel, thinking that she somehow took the keys. _Hmm keys are are still there_. I looked back to her and rolled down my window.

"What took you so long to use the bathroom? I mean if you had to go number-"

"I got us a room at the motel." She said cutting me off and walked over and sat in the driver's seat. She looked at me with eyebrows raised.

"You like Bon Jovi?" I shifted awkwardly and looked away.

"Yeah, so? Got a problem with that?" Nel smiled and shook her head.

"Anyways, like I was saying, I got us a room to stay in for the night."

"How? I thought you had to be an adult to get a room?"

"I know. See, while you were filling the car up, I asked the guy and he asked me if I was nineteen so I said no."

"So then how did you get us a room?" She smiled at me.

"I told him that you were my dad." If I was drinking water, water would have been everywhere .

"You what!?"

"Yeah, I said that you were my dad and he believed me and gave me the keys to room number three!"

"Well he's an idiot! I mean, hell, I don't even look twenty!"

"Whatever, let's go check out our room!" With that, she drove off to where the motel was and easily found room number three. We got out and went into the room.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't nice.

It had a tranquil feeling to it, with a small fireplace under a flat screen television, but that was pretty much it. A little farther away from the fireplace, were two small beds and an empty mini fridge. My first thought was _why?_ Why the hell would there be a fridge if it's empty? The bathroom was okay at least.

"Hey Nel! I'm going to go get my stuff from the car! I'll be right back!" I yelled out as I stepped out into the chilly evening. I opened the car's trunk and grabbed my duffel bag, I stopped.

_Mom's bag_.

I swung my bag over my shoulder and picked up her duffel bag. _'Man, this is heavy! I wonder what she packed?'_ I slammed shut the trunk and shuffled back in. Nel was sitting with her knees tucked inside the hoodie and she was watching the news. I threw my mother's bag down next to Nel and startled her.

"Anything on the news yet?"

"No, not yet." I sat next to her cross legged and began to rummage through my duffel bag.

"You can have whatever's in my mom's duffel. I don't really care." Nel looked at me blankly.

"Are you sure? I mean wouldn't that be rude?" I shook my head.

"Nah, go ahead. It's not like she's going to use or need anything anyways." She looked at the bag and began to unzip it. I watched, curious to see what the hell made it so heavy. She began to take out clothes and lady stuff, I shuddered. _'Guess mom somehow packed her entire closet.'_ I thought to myself. Nel stopped pulling clothes out and I raised an eyebrow.

"That's it?"

"No, there's a large family album at the bottom and some papers that look important." I leaned over and took out the album. _'Funny, I've never seen this album before. Hell, I didn't even know we had a camera.'_ I thought, hesitating. I gave in and opened the cover. My eyes widened as I saw pictures from when I was a baby.

"Awe! You were so tiny and adorable! You looked like a kitten!" Nel squealed next to me and I blushed.

"I looked like a fucking rat." I muttered and read the caption: _'Baby Grimmjow and his-' _the word had been scribbled out, but I knew exactly who the other fucker was.

"Who is that?" Nel said pointing at the guy that was holding me, his head had been cropped out.

"Nobody." I said bitterly and went through more baby pictures with silly captions underneath them. And then they seemed to progress to when I was older, like my baseball and football games. I wasn't looking at the camera, which meant that she only took them when I wasn't looking. _'No wonder I didn't know about this.' _ I kept flipping through the pages until I reached the last page. _'This one's pretty recent'_ I thought.

It was when I had broken my right arm during a football game. My mouth formed in a thin line as I remembered the guy that had tackled me and the sudden numbness I felt in my arm. I remember looking down at my arm, only to see that it was twisted at an awkward angle along with some bone sticking out. I shuddered and Nel looked at me as I shut the album and got up.

"I'm going to take a shower."

"Kay then." I grabbed my duffel and went to the bathroom, locking the door behind me. I set my bag on the sink's countertop and took out my towel, silently thanking my mother that I listened to her and had brought along my toothbrush and toothpaste. I messed around with the knobs until I got the right setting; not too hot and not too cold. I sighed in content as the water hit my back, making me feel a bit drowsy. Thankful that there was already a bottle of shampoo, I didn't really care that it was fruity scented. Heck, I didn't give a shit. All I wanted was for my hair to be clean. Already dreading that I had to get out, I stepped into the cold air anyways. _'The faster I get this done, the sooner I can go to bed' _I thought and got dressed quickly in a black t-shirt and pajama bottoms. I walked out and saw that Nel had taken off the hoodie and was holding a towel and some clothes. She walked past me and shut the door behind her. I shrugged and flopped onto the bed and grabbed the remote. I turned up the volume a little and watched the news.

I was starting to doze off when I heard the news anchor lady mention the white cloaks. I sat up and listened to the conversation.

"A small town in Missouri near the border of Kansas appears to have been left as a ghost town." _Pfft, small town my ass._

"We bring to you live on the scene with our reporter Chris." The scene changed and the guy, Chris appeared. I felt as if was going to fall off of the side of the bed as I saw that he was standing near Mable's.

"Thanks Katherine! As you can see behind me, the town appears to be in ruins with smashed windows and collapsing ceilings." _Just what the hell happened? Did they bomb the place or something?_

"As for the townspeople," The Chris guy made a face and the camera zoomed to the diner where I found Nel.

"Many appear to have been brutally slaughtered or missing and we fear that the violent cult known as the White Cloaks, have something to do with the events that took place in this small town. This is your live reporter, Chris reporting to you this tragedy in Missouri, and Katherine back to you!" I suddenly tasted blood in my mouth and realized that I had been biting my lip. The Katherine lady was on the screen again and looked concerned.

"A tragedy indeed. Well it seems that authorities had already begun to inspect the town and small houses nearby, only to find some empty or vandalized.." She trailed off as piece of paper was handed to her, her eyes widened with fear. The sound of a gun being cocked was heard. _Oh shit!_ I thought as a guy in a white cloak appeared, holding a gun to the lady's head. He motioned for her to get up and more white cloaked bastards rushed in and hauled her away. The sounds of screams were heard and I felt a chill run up my spine as the cold eyes of a murderer stared back.

"The White Cloaks have warned the people one too many times and were only taken as silly threats. _Idiots_. Now you will all be at our mercy when we begin our massive slaughters." He said in a deadly calm voice. _Scratch that._ It was pretty fucking scary to say the least.

"Since our first warning, many smart individuals came to us and joined our group. But enough of that. There is a young man that we are looking for and I know that you will all be eager to get rid of the pest. However, don't kill him. Instead, bring him back to us. Our leader would love to have a _'word' _with him. The reason for that is, he is the first to have escaped the slaughter in the town that everyone is talking about and our leader would like to '_congratulate'_ him." I felt my stomach tighten, but shrugged it off.

_'Maybe he's talking about somebody else.'_ I reached over to drink out of my water bottle.

"And to help you all on your little quest I have a photo of him that I would like to share with you all."

_'PFFSHT'! _I spit out the mouthful of water that I had intended to drink. In his hand, was a picture of a guy with powdery blue hair and blue eyes.

"Holy shit! That's me!"


	4. Don't walk away

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.**

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**Some Grimmjow/Nel fluffy goodness!**

**Enjoy!**

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I gaped at the picture and blinked as the guy continued to speak.

"Oh, before I forget, as of tomorrow, all electricity in the country is going down. So good luck with trying to escape us. Like I said, you will all be wishing for mercy in the end. Only to receive none." He began to walk past the camera and I got a glimpse of white fabric as the camera turned to where the guy had walked to and the screen went black. My eyes widened

'_Hold on. How did he get that picture?'_ It was one of those school pictures for people to put in their wallet.

_'Wait.'_

My blood ran cold as the image of my gutted mother flashed in my mind. _So the fuckers went through her wallet huh?'_ I stealthily got up and quietly made my way to the bathroom where Nel was. I pressed my ear to the door and listened. The sound of water running was heard and I relaxed.

_'Good. The last thing I need is for Nel to hand me over, considering the fact that I was a total dick to her.'_ I sat on the edge of my bed and pondered over what I should do. Maybe I _shoul_d go my separate ways and not get Nel dragged into this mess. I sighed and fell back against the soft mattress. Tomorrow morning I'll sneak out and leave. I took my shirt off and stuffed it into my duffel bag before slipping under the covers. I closed my eyes and attempted to sleep, but couldn't. I rolled onto my side and began to count in my head.

_'One sheep'_

_'Two sheeps'_

_'Three sheeps' _

_'Fuck this, it's not working.'_ I rolled onto my back again and stared at the ceiling. The sound of a door opening caught my attention and my eyes flickered over to the bathroom. Nel walked out wearing a shirt that was way too big on her. I blinked and cleared my throat.

"Uh, that's my shirt."

"I know." She said and sat on her bed, facing me.

"So why are you wearing it?" She smiled at me.

"Grimmy I need your help."

"On what?" I groaned as she got up and sat next me. I sat up and looked at her as she turned her back to me and began to lift up the shirt, exposing her bare back. And by bare I meant; she wasn't wearing a bra.

"Whoa! Hold on! What the hell are you doing Nel!" She turned to look at me and said,

"I need you to help me clean my wound." I mentally slapped myself, _'Duh how could I forget?' _

"Sure." Nel handed me the first aid kit and I began to apply the ointments and bandages on the nasty wound. A thought occurred to me,

_'Wait, if they're looking for me because I made it out alive, shouldn't they be looking for Nel too?'_ I probably stopped because the next thing I knew, Nel was waving her hand in my face.

"Yo! Earth to Grimmjow!" I blinked and she frowned at me.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine, don't worry." I leaned back as she leaned closer to me, studying my face.

"You're lying." She said and leaned back crossing her arms over her chest.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong Nel!" I snapped at her and laid down in the covers. She looked at me with her hands on her hips.

"Is that so?" She said and before I could say anything, she flung the covers off of me and straddled me.

"Aye! Get off of me!" I said and tried pushing her off. She grabbed both of my wrists and pinned them over my head. '_What the hell is going on!?' _I tried to kick her off but it was no use. I pushed my head back into my pillow as she leaned closer to me.

"You're not going to tell me what's wrong?" She asked playfully, mischief gleaming in her eyes. My eyes narrowed, _'So she wants to fuck around huh? Ha! Two can play at that game!'_ I leaned closer to her face and smirked.

"No." I said defiantly and laid my head against the pillow. Nel arched an eyebrow.

"Oh?" The next thing I knew, one of her hands had let go of my wrists and her fingers were pressing against my side. I stiffened as a familiar feeling came over me and I realized her intentions.

_Oh no the hell she did not._

I couldn't help the laughter that escaped me as Nel began to tickle my sides.

"Tell me what's wrong!" She said as I tried to stop her from tickling me to death.

"HaHa! Never!" I tried to get her off of me, but she held on. Something about laughing and trying to do something else at the same time, just doesn't work. After many failed attempts, I gave up and laughed like a crazed maniac while Nel also laughed gleefully.

She finally gave up and laid on my chest. I stiffened as she wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled into the side of my neck. I blushed and tried to get her off of me once again, only to have her cling at my hair. She lifted her face up and looked at me sadly.

"Why won't you tell me what's wrong?" She said and began to run her hand through my hair.

"It's nothing, really." I said and winced as she tugged my hair.

"You're lying to me again! Why can't you be more open towards me?" Her amber eyes glistened with tears as she looked at me. I felt somewhat guilty and gave her a soft smile.

"I don't know if you've noticed, but I'm pretty damn open about what I'm thinking." I said as I ran my hand through her somewhat damp hair. She looked at me sadly and laid her head against the crook of my neck.

"You smell like oranges and fruit." She mumbled sleepily. I wrapped an arm around her and rolled onto our sides. She wrapped her arms around my waist tightly.

"Don't walk away." I looked at her confused, not sure what she meant.

"What are you talking about Nel? I'm not going anywhere." I replied lying, glad that her face was buried on my chest so that she couldn't see my far away expression.

"You're lying." Her reply muffled. I rolled my eyes and pulled her head softly away from my chest to look at her.

"Would I lie to you?" She thought for a moment and looked at me.

"No but-"

"But nothing Nel." I took a deep breath and leaned closer to her. Her eyes widened and pink stained her cheeks.

"G-grimm?"

"Sshh." I pressed my lips against her soft ones, I felt my face heat up. It's not like I've never kissed someone but, this felt different for some reason. It was slower and less messy. After a moment, I pulled away and started thinking '_what have I gotten myself into? I'm going to be leaving in the morning before she wakes up.' _Nel was blushing and buried her face in my chest again as I chuckled.

"G-goodnight I guess." She stammered and I waited until I felt her relax and her breathing slowed. I waited for what felt like an eternity and slowly began to remove her arms from my waist and put them around a large pillow. I checked the alarm clock on the bedside table. _3:40 A.M_. glared back at me in red numbers. I slowly got up, stopping every time to make sure that she didn't wake up. Once I completely got up, I moved quickly and put on a shirt and jeans. I decided to leave the rest of my belongings with Nel. I didn't really need them anyways. I quietly searched for a piece of paper and a pen. I quickly scribbled my reason for leaving and to not come looking for me.

I made my way to the door and grabbed my duffel bag. I turned to look at her one last time and sighed.

'_Sorry, I didn't really want to do this but, I would hate to see you get hurt. Later.'_ I opened the door and walked out, closing the door quietly. I walked past the car, deciding to leave Nel the car and I sprinted in no particular direction. All I wanted was to get as far away from the motel as possible. If I hadn't been so damn distracted, I would have noticed the man following me and I could have saved myself from all the trouble and misery looming ahead.


	5. Stalker

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.**

**Warning: Language and weird pedo guy (not exactly sure what to call it).**

**A/N: The first 'paragraph' is told from the Guy. The rest will be in Grimmjow's POV:3**

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Robert Carter watched as the youth that was causing the slaughters, ran past him and made a turn to a nearby trail. An evil grin spread across his face.

_Oh yes, he was definitely going to enjoy torturing the teen._

He followed the blue haired boy and watched as he stopped suddenly in the middle of the trail.

_'What the fuck is he doing?'_

Robert studied him from his hiding spot in the thicket. His pulse quickened as the adrenaline surged in his veins. The teen appeared to be deep in thought, blue eyes closing briefly. He would track him to make sure that he was alone and then he would go for the kill. Robert followed him for a while longer, occasionally jogging to keep up when the teen sprinted. He watched as the teen abruptly stopped again, but Robert kept running silently. He would circle around him and approach in a friendly way, only to ambush him from behind. His grin widened even more as he thought about what he would do to him. One of the biggest thrills was to see the fear in their eyes when they realized they weren't safe.

* * *

I ran into what seemed like a trail with large trees and tall grass.

_Why does this seem so familiar?_

I stopped for a moment, deep in thought. I looked around at my surroundings one more time, ignoring my gut's warning and began to run again. I ran for a while longer, stopping once again and kept thinking where I should go. _There really wasn't anywhere for me to go considering the fact that the whole country was practically on my ass to hand me over to those bastards_. I stopped as I felt the back of my neck suddenly begin to burn and prickle.

_'That's not a good sign'_ I thought to myself and stiffened as I became aware that I was not safe. I looked ahead and froze as a man walked towards me with his hands in his pockets. A sudden fear consumed me as my blue eyes met his cold dark ones. A smirk was on his face and he nodded to me, walking at the same pace. I stood there for a moment, unsure if I was overreacting and turned to see where he had gone.

_Empty._

He was nowhere in sight! _'Where did he-'_ I was suddenly flat on my back and I saw a faint glint, realizing he had a blade to my face. A large hunting knife to be exact, along with a shiny gun tucked into his pocket.

_'I don't wanna die.'_ The thought repeated in my head.

"Get the fuck up." His voice sounded like glass breaking; somewhat quiet yet, menacing.

"Where are we going?" I said as I got up and mentally chided myself for how weak and stupid I sounded. When he didn't answer, I suddenly went into hysterics and began laughing. I've always been a brave guy but, deep inside I was scaring the hell out of myself. I've never gone into hysterics, not even when I found my mother in the field. So it was pretty damn new to me and also kinda creepy. The guy glared at me angrily and began yelling.

"What the fuck are you laughing at? Son of a bitch! You better shut the fuck up or I'll gash your fucking face!" In my mind I knew I had to shut up, but instead I kept laughing; pissing him off even more.

_'WHAM!' _I fell on the fucking dirt as his fist slammed against my right cheek. I winced from the searing pain and my eyes widened as he brought the knife down, slashing the same area where he had punched me. I stared at him with wide eyes as I felt the warm stickiness of blood running down my neck, soaking my shirt. I brought my hand to my face; it was slashed from ear to mouth.

"_Never_ laugh at me you little shit. Get the fuck up." I tried to stand but fell on the ground. Everything was spinning and I was getting nauseous.

"Get the fuck up!" He snarled as he delivered a kick to my ribs and pulled me up from the back of my shirt, dragging me forward. I grunted from the pain and received a slap across the face.

"Shut up!" And we began our long ass trek to a rustic cabin.

_In the middle of fucking nowhere._

_Oh shit._

* * *

He threw me on the floor and I tried my best to cradle my aching head. I groaned from the pain on my face, I rolled onto my back and tried getting up slowly. He probably thought I was going to attack him and spun around, punching my other cheek and I screamed from the pain.

"Don't do _anything_ without my permission. One wrong move and I'll put a bullet in you. Understood!?" He threatened and I nodded slowly. He left the room and went to what seemed like a small kitchen. I sat against the wall and pressed my hand to my cheek. My eyes stung and I bit my lip to keep me from crying out. I knew I had to relax so that I wouldn't pass out, which seemed very likely at this point. He came back with a wet cloth and threw it, hitting me in the face.

"Stop crying like a little bitch and clean yourself." He began to laugh. I felt my skin start prickling again and I slightly shuddered, he noticed and smirked. He took a few steps and was right in front of me in an instant. He crouched and grasped my jaw, gripping it harder as he saw me wince.

"Hmph, you're beautiful when you're in pain. You look better with red streaming down your face."

_'What the hell!?'_ He trailed a finger to where he had slashed my cheek and watched me.

"I like my victims exotic, with your blue hair, you might not even be alive when I'm finished with your body."

_'Whatthefuckdidhejustsay?'_ My eyes widened in realization.

_'He's not just going to murder me, he's going to-to rape me!?'_ I felt my fear get replaced with a sudden anger.

_'No. Nuh uh. I'm not going down like this! Hell no! I'm going to fight this motherfucker and get the fuck out of here!'_ I began to think of a plan on how I was going to escape. I blinked as he got up and left, forgetting that he was still there.

_'Think Grimmjow! Think! You're going to get your ass out of here in one piece!'_ I stared at the floor, concentrating on my next move._ At night I'll make my move. I'll sneak out, but if he wakes up, I'll have to fight him and knock him out._ I sat smugly against the wall, confident about my plan. I don't know when I fell asleep, but I woke up when I felt a sharp kick to my ribs. I took in a deep breath and winced, trying to focus my eyes. The guy was standing in front of me, holding a glass of water. He grabbed my hand and placed the glass in.

"I want you to stay alive for a while before I have my fun with you." When I just sat there, anger flashed across his eyes. In an instant, he was gripping my jaw tightly, forcing all of the water in my mouth; not caring when I choked. When the glass was empty, my throat burned and my eyesight began to blur.

_'The bastard drugged me.'_ The last thing I saw was him laughing and the room spun. I blacked out as my face hit the floor.


	6. What must be done

**I'm pretty sure that Everyone knows that I don't own Bleach. If I did, I wouldn't be living where I am:3**

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**Warnings: the usual; some blood (though not a lot) and language.**

**Enjoy! **

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I woke up to the dry taste of cotton and blood in my mouth. My face felt like it was swollen like a balloon. My eyes widened as I recalled the events up till before I passed out. I frantically looked down and slightly relaxed when I saw that I was still wearing the same clothes. I searched the room and found that I was alone.

_'Strange. I wonder where he went?'_ I was interrupted when I heard my stomach growl. I haven't eaten anything since before I left Nel._ 'Speaking of which, I wonder what she's doing...'_ I looked up as I heard the sound of heavy footsteps coming towards me. The guy walked in with food and my stomach decided that moment to growl loudly. He smirked and began eating, making sure that I watched.

_Asshole_

He stayed there until the last bite. He wiped his hands on his jeans and walked out to the kitchen. He came back with a roll of duct tape, his face in an evil smirk.

_'I have to act now. If I wait, it'll be too late.'_ He got closer and from my sitting position, I swung my leg out and knocked him down. I quickly got up and was about to run, when he grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I brought my arm up as he swung at my face, blocking his fist. With my other arm, I swung my fist as hard as I could and slightly smirked as I heard a pained grunt escape him. Not missing a beat, I pushed him off and grabbed the tape. I held him down as I wrapped a shit load of duct tape around his wrists.

"You son of a bitch! When I get my hands on you, you're gonna wish that you were never born! I'm going to put a bullet in your head!" He screamed vehemently and thrashed violently. Not wasting any time, I ran out the fucking door like a bat out of hell. I closed it to give me a few seconds of getting away. I ran down the path and it felt like I'd run for about ten minutes, when I began to feel the burn.

_I can't slow down._

If I did, he'll catch up to me in no time. Part of me wanted to stop and see if he was following me, yet I kept going. I didn't know where I was going, I just had to get away.

_'Maybe I can go home and lock myself in the cellar.'_ I decided maybe I should do that and made my way towards where I had been attacked. From there I'll go all the way to the state border and find my house, grab food and water and lock myself in the cellar until it's safe. _If it'll ever be safe._ I blinked and realized that I was somewhere I'd never been to. My surroundings were different and I was at location where, if you weren't careful, you could bring yourself a large amount of misery. Then it dawned on me:

_I'm fucking lost._

The atmosphere suddenly felt different and I looked around and saw that I was literally clinging onto the side of a small mountain. I looked over the edge and saw that there was a lot of tall grass and bushes. I unconsciously slowed down when I suddenly heard twigs snapping not too far from me.

_FUCK!_

Adrenaline coursed through me and I began to sprint. It wasn't that long until I heard a loud _'BANG!' _and I felt a sharp pain in my leg. I looked down and saw blood pouring through my jeans.

_'He shot me from that far?'_ I limped slightly. I couldn't stop. No. He'll catch me if I do. I yelped loudly as I felt another burst of pain. This time, it was near my shoulder. I looked over and saw a fucking arrow sticking out. _A fucking arrow_. He doesn't want to kill me. At least not yet. The slight shock from seeing the arrow threw me off balance and my eyes widened as I realized that I was falling off the fucking side. I clawed desperately at anything, but kept falling to the bottom.

"FUCK!" I screamed as I fell through five feet of air until I slammed into some bushes at the bottom and fell into the tall grass. I hissed in pain and saw blackness creeping into the corners of my eyes.

_'NonononononoNO! I can't black out!_' I laid in the grass, hoping that he wouldn't find me and eventually gave in to the numbness and blacked out.

* * *

I fell into the darkness and woke up to total darkness, save for the occasional star here and there. My lips were dry and chapped and my gashed face began to bleed again. I bit my lip as I tried pulling out the damn arrow that was wedged deeply into my skin. I gasped slightly as I pulled at the arrow. I stopped and took a couple of deep breaths and reached for the arrow again.

_'Damn, this hurts a lot.' _I pulled it again for about the fifth time and succeeded. It felt like there was a gaping hole there and the arrow head was covered in bloody flesh. I stared at it and felt my body begin to tremble before I passed out again.

* * *

I was in total blackness this time and throughout, I heard faint voices. I tried to concentrate on what they were saying, I could only make out some words:

"Scalpel."

"Anesthetics."

"...Wounds are too serious."

"...Going to make it?"

"Bullet wound."

"Stitches."

I felt something sting and I flinched, trying to move away. I felt a pair of hands restraining me.

_No! What if it's them!?_

I couldn't open my eyes and that made the urge to escape even stronger. I heard more voices, clearer yet, worried.

"Restrain him!"

"Stop! He's going to hurt himself!" I stopped.

_Hurt myself? What the...?_ I opened my eyes slightly and was overwhelmed with bright lights and lots of faces. I opened my mouth to say something, but someone pressed their finger to my lips. My vision was somewhat blurry yet, they seemed familiar.

_Those eyes._

My eyes widened slightly and she noticed. Though half of her face was covered in one of those masks that doctors wear, I could tell that she was smiling. It was one of those smiles where you can't tell if it's a sad one, or a happy one. Tears began to appear in her eyes._ So, she's sad?_ I wondered and continued to stare into her eyes.

_Oh, I see._

I smiled slightly at her and I felt my eyes roll, falling into a deep sleep once again. The sound of a heart monitor going crazy in the background.

_Nel_.

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**A/N: Sorry that this chapter is shorter than the rest so far! Please review! Thank you!**


	7. Revelation

**Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! They've given me somewhat the motivation to keep writing! I'm sure some of you have heard about the devasting tornado that hit near Rochelle and Fairdale Illinois. Please keep those that are still missing in your prayers! We're ok except, my aunt's house was in the path of the tornado:/ but she's ok!**

**4-9-15 Never forget**

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**I don't own Bleach :p**

**Enjoy!**

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I woke up in a room that looked like it was from a hospital, there was a curtain next to me. I layed on a very plush mattress and sighed, running a hand through my hair as I remembered what happened yesterday. I stared aimlessly at the ceiling when I heard the door open. I tried sitting up but someone pushed me back onto the bed. I gasped as I tried to breathe; aquamarine hair in my face.

"N-Nel I can't breathe." My voice barely heard, I felt my right shoulder getting wet. The sound of silent sobbing reached my ears. I wrapped my good arm around her, rubbing her back affectionately.

"Hey, I'm okay. Don't cry Nel." I said to her and she looked at me angrily.

"You told me that you weren't leaving! You lied to me!"

"Look, it was for the best. You know you're not safe with me."

"I'm not safe either way! You forget who you're talking to!"

"Don't yell so loud-"

"No! You listen to me! My brother and I are the ones that started this plight against The White Cloaks! Do you have any idea how many we've dealt with already?" I shook my head.

"I'll just bring more trouble than necessary to you and everyone else if I stay."

"I don't care."

"You don't, but everyone else will say otherwise." Nel opened her mouth to say something, but someone by the door cleared their throat. Nel turned to look in their direction and slowly got up. I tried to see who it was, but I could barely see from my spot on the bed. I heard the door close and for a moment I thought I was alone and sighed loudly. I turned my head and nearly jumped right out of my skin. A guy with brown hair that was up to his shoulders, was leaning against the wall. He saw my reaction and smiled apologetically.

"Sorry about my sister, she takes after our father when it comes to yelling." I stared back and I guess I must've had a weird expression on my face because he chuckled and extended his hand.

"Once again, I'm sorry. My name is Starrk and I'm Nelliel's older brother, and you are?" I shook his hand with my good arm.

"Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez." _He seems like a nice guy_. Starrk's face suddenly got very serious.

"Since you're awake now, I'll have to tell you how things work around here."

"Uh sure.." _Well, so much for the nice guy act, I might as well do the same and drop the act._

"I'm sure you know this is a base and I'm sure that Nelliel has told you some things." I nodded my head.

"Well then, I already told you my name, so I might as well tell you my position in this _mess_."

"Mess?" He nodded his head.

"As Nelliel told you, our group is trying to get rid of The White Cloaks and they're trying to do the same to us."

"Yeah, I know about that."

"We also know that their main objective right now is to take you to Aizen."

"_Aizen_?"

"Yes. Aizen is the founder and leader of The White Cloaks. His position is like mine in _the mess_."

"Sorry, but, is _the mess_ a type of code word for something?" He looked away and closed his eyes, chuckling.

"How old are you?"

"Sixteen, but I don't see what my age has to do with any of this."

"Actually, _it does_." I stared at him blankly.

"How?"

"Do you know how to fight? Use a gun or a any weapon for that matter?" I felt a vein starting to throb near my temple.

"Stop beating around the bush and tell me already dammit!" He had a look of amusement and began writing something on a notepad.

'_Funny, I never saw him take out the damn thing.' _I watched as he scribbled over something and began writing again.

"The hell are you writing?" He smiled, but kept writing.

"Nothing really, just know that when you're healed, be ready to test your strength. Honestly I've never really met someone this feisty. You'll make a great soldier, I'm sure of it." He got up and began walking towards the door. He stopped and turned around,

"Oh, just letting you know, a doctor should be coming in shortly to check up on you." With that, he left. Leaving me confused as fuck.

* * *

The doctor turned out to be a guy who looked to be in his early twenties. He walked in and the first thing he did was talk shit about my hair.

"Now _this_, is different." I stared at him confused.

"Is something wrong?" At first I was worried that something was wrong with my stitches.

"No, no. It's just that, you are the second person in the base with crazy colored dyed hair." I frowned and felt my eye begin to twitch.

"Look pal! My hair is naturally blue! So if talking shit about people's hair is your profession, get the fuck out of here and bring in a _real_ doctor, not a _critic_." I sneered at the guy. He covered his mouth and giggled.

_'What the fuck is wrong with everyone here? It's like they're all happy-go-lucky fuckers!'_

"I'm sorry hon', it's nice seeing a change once in a while."

"_Change_?"

"Oh yes, it gets rather boring seeing the same hair colors, not to mention attitude's." I rolled my eyes.

"Why is everyone so damn relaxed? It's fuckin' creepy if you ask me."

"It's best not to worry yourself to death. Besides, not everyone is relaxed." He said and took out his equipment.

"Well, good news to you, you're healing rather quick. Your stitches are going to be removed very soon."

"How soon?"

"My, you're an impatient one!" I groaned and felt a headache coming on.

"Just tell me when."

"In two or three days."

"That soon!?" He nodded his head and began to change my bandages.

"You know, we thought that you were never going to wake up." Now _this_, caught my attention.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"It's been almost two months since we found you in the fields."

"Two fuckin' months!?" He nodded his head.

"Yes if Miss Nelliel hadn't rushed in crying and yelling out orders, saying that we had to search for her friend, you would have probably been dead by now." I stared blankly at the wall as I absorbed this information.

_'So, technically Nel literally saved my ass from getting destroyed. No pun intended.'_

"You know, she's the one that's been taking care of you since you lapsed into a coma while we were fixing you up." He said aimlessly.

I shuddered and the doctor looked at me.

"May I ask, did anything happen to you when you escaped?" I frowned.

"Well no shit, I got shot twice and got my face fucked up." Now _he _was the one frowning.

"No, what I meant to say was, did he assault you sexually."

"No, at least I don't think he did." I thought back to the time I had blacked out and hoped that he hadn't _done _anything to me. I looked at the doctor and watched as he shuddered.

"Well, I sure do hope he didn't do anything to you. Much less shoved foreign objects into you!" I felt my face turn pale.

"W-what do you mean by _foreign objects_?" He looked at me and arched an eyebrow.

"What? You thought we were going to let the guy go clean? No, after we found you, we went looking for the person responsible."

"You guys killed him?"

"Yes, but that was after we searched the place where he had you. And by golly, I'm glad that you escaped when you did."

"How come?" He chuckled.

"Aren't you so full of questions my dear?" I frowned

"Well, I'd actually like to know what would have happened to me if I hadn't escaped!"

"Fine, I'll tell you." He leaned back on the chair and crossed his arms.

"During our search, we found a door that led to what looked like a basement. In the basement, there was a table and a chair. On them, there were belts strapped on the corners."

"So what? It's just a table." He shook his head at me.

"I'm not done there. In the corner there was a wooden chest with, um, toys." I arched an eyebrow.

"Toys? What the hell can a stuffed animal do to me?" He covered his mouth to stop himself from laughing.

"Oh my, you have no clue what kind of toys I'm talking about, do you?" I shook my head.

"I don't know any other kind of toys."

"I'm sure you've heard of dildos and handcuffs." I blanched.

"What the fuck!?" He began laughing at me.

"If only you could see the beautiful shade of red you're turning! It contrasts nicely with your blue hair." I frowned at him.

"Are fucking around with me?" He shook his head and stared at me.

"I'm dead serious. The sick fuck was going to have his fun with you." He shuddered.

_'Man, I'm so glad I got out of there I did!'_

"So what's your name _doc_?" I asked. He looked at me and smiled.

"Shinji. Now you have to tell me yours." I looked at him confused.

"I thought you already knew my name. Don't they have it written down on those clipboards doctors are always carrying around?" He shook his head.

"No, you're just listed as patient number six."

"Oh." He looked at me expectantly.

"Well? What's your name?"

"Grimmjow."

"Grimmjow huh? That's kind of a long name. Do you mind if I call you Grimm?" My eye twitched.

"I do mind actually."

"Well Grimm! It looks like you and I are going to get along fairly well!" My mouth set on a straight line.

"Whatever." He smiled and began to walk out.

"I'll let you rest for a while. You're going to need your strength." With that, he left and closed the door.

* * *

The rest of the day was spent drifting off and jolting awake. Honestly, it was getting pretty annoying. Nel had visited a few times but, she made sure that I was asleep whenever she did. The only evidence that she had been in there was the scent of flowers and a cold, wet object on my forehead. I tried to recall if I had a fever or something and instead I came up blank.

"Why the hell is there a cold thingy on my forehead?" I wondered aloud. I didn't really care anymore and was about to lay back into the covers, when I heard the door open. I layed back down quickly and closed my eyes; pretending to be asleep. I heard someone sigh and they grabbed the thing from my forehead. The sound of water falling into a bowl reached my ears and I tried not to open my eyes to see. I felt a cool hand sweep through my hair and rested on my forehead. It actually felt kind of nice and I felt a smile begin to form.

"Oh drop the act, I know you're awake." I sat up and looked at her sheepishly.

"Well, you caught me." She didn't say anything and an awkward silence filled the room. We just sat there, not really looking at each other. I looked over at her and quickly looked away before she saw me looking at her. She hadn't really changed much, other than a black cloak that I had also seen Starrk and Shinji wearing. I somewhat blushed when I realized that I wasn't really wearing much, but shrugged it off. Nel decided then, to break the silence.

"I'm sorry." I looked at her with wide eyes.

"You're _sorry_? Why the hell would you be sorry? I'm the one who should be sorry!" She shook her head.

"I'm sorry that I brought you into this mess."

"Starrk kept talking about _the mess _and didn't really tell me what the hell he was talking about." I muttered. Nel sighed and got up from her chair. She sat next to me and I moved over a bit; the bed wasn't really that big for two anyways.

"The mess is basically what's going on."

"Which is?"

"Think of it as a crusade of something." I groaned.

"That still doesn't really explain it ya know?" She smiled at me.

"You're going to have to get use to it, since here at the base we sometimes talk in codes. Like right now, the soldiers are talking in codes." I arched an eyebrow.

"Soldiers? As in the army?" She shook her head.

"No, they're just regular people like you and me. They just get some intense training done and they're set to go out and look for survivors."

_'Survivors? Just what the hell happened while I was in a coma?'_ Nel saw me frown and spoke up.

"They started bombing the day after we found you." I stared at her with wide eyes.

"Seriously!?" She nodded.

"We were in the fields and we heard a really loud explosion nearby, not to mention the giant tower of smoke."

"Giant tower of smoke?" She shrugged.

"Later on, we heard a jet pass us from above the base. Turns out they stole the jets from an army base." She stopped for a minute,

"Everything's gone! They've destroyed the majority of the country's defenses, we're all that's left. As far as we know anyways." She said trailing off.

"Aren't there any other bases in the state?" She nodded and pulled out a thickly, folded piece of paper from a hidden pocket in her cloak. She unfolded what appeared to be a map that was littered with different colored circles.

"What's with the colored circles?"

"Red are bases, blue are safe zones, purple are possible signs of other resistances like ours, and black are...areas that have been taken over by them."

"There's only one base?"

"Yeah, but it's near Idaho's border."

"But, how do you know that nobody's taken over _that_ base?"

"We have soldiers stationed out there as backups, which is the point of the base. If this one were to be terminated, we'd have to use the backup base."

"How the hell did you and Starrk have the time and money to make these!?" Nel laughed at me,

"_We_, actually didn't build the bases. My dad was the one who got us involved." I sat in thought for a while, thinking over some things.

"So then how exactly do you have electricity? If I remember correctly, those White Cloaked bastards said that they were cutting off all electricity."

"We have backup generators and keep warm with kerosene lamps."

"Oh."

"You want to know how this all came to be, don't you?" I nodded my head and Nel leaned against the headboard.

"It all started when my father and Aizen worked together as scientists."

"Scientists?"

"Yeah. They were partners since before Starrk was born. All was fine, until the accident." She said and lowered her voice as if someone else was hearing.

"They say that Aizen went crazy with his experiments and invented something _bad._

"Bad?"

"Uh huh. Aizen was soon fired and that same day he tried killing his wife and his two month old son. They arrested him and was sentenced to life in prison. Later, he broke out of prison with some of the worst criminals."

"But what exactly did he do to go to prison? I mean he tried killing his family but, I'm sure that there is another reason why he was sentenced for life."

"During his time at the lab, Aizen began to see things his own way. He wanted to control the country and have people live by his ways. His ideas were rejected and later identified as threats, so he was fired. But that didn't stop there. They say that he invented a rare chip called the Hogyoku. The Hogyoku is a very controlling device and only one other has been made. I heard that it's very dangerous if it gets injected into the bloodstream and no one has actually done that, until Aizen tried it with his son."

The whole time she was talking, my mind began to race and I wondered, _where is Aizen's son now? Is he crazy strong? Or is he with Aizen?_

"What happened to Aizen's son? Did he survive?" Nel shrugged and looked away for a second.

"I don't know. When my father and the other scientists found out, they managed to get to his house before the Hogyoku was injected into the boy's arm. His wife had been beaten pretty badly; almost unconscious. They shot Aizen's leg and handcuffed him."

"This Aizen guy sounds like a total dick if ya ask me." Nel laughed at that.

"Anyways, his family moved far away from him, but we don't even know if they're still alive." She began to say something else but the door opened and Starrk, along with three other men in black cloaks walked in. Nel got up quickly and nodded to Starrk, who nodded back, and she walked out. Starrk looked at me and signaled for the men to leave. They quickly left and Starrk sat on the wooden chair.

"So I'm guessing that Nelliel told you about Aizen. Am I right?"

"Yeah..." Starrk sighed and crossed his arms.

I'm sure you've noticed that Nelliel and I don't look alike, with her hair color and all."

"I just thought that you guys were actually siblings."

"Nelliel is my half-sister. My mother was killed by Aizen and our father was killed by Aizen's men around two months ago."

"Sorr-"

"Don't. From what I heard from my sister, your mother was killed by _them_." I nodded.

"Does that anger you?" He asked, his voice calm.

"Yeah, but there's nothing I can do about it n-."

"You can."

"What?" He leaned forward slightly.

"It's called revenge. The only way to avenge the deaths of those dear to you, is to get rid of the one who caused them pain."

"You want me to go on a killing spree?"

"No, do what you got to do."

"There you go again, talking in fucking riddles!" Starrk raised an eyebrow, amused.

"Well I guess it seems to me that you're ready to start your training. How 'bout it?" I leaned back with a smirk on my face.

"Bring it on."

* * *

**A/N: Hope you liked it!**


	8. Counting the Stars

**Disclaimer: I do not own Bleach. Tite Kubo does :p**

**Warning: the usual stuff: blood, language, and violence.**

**Please review!**

**Enjoy!**

* * *

_"Bring it on."_ I said with a smirk gracing my lips. Starrk grinned and got up.

"Atta' boy! See! I knew you had it in you!" He began to make his way to the door,

"Come on, I'll show you around then." I started to get up, until I realized that I was barely wearing any clothes.

"Uh.." Starrk noticed and laughed.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. Can't have you walking around half-naked. The ladies might attack you before you even have the chance to fight Aizen." He walked towards a closet and pulled out a bunch of black fabric, throwing it at me. He saw my confused expression and unfolded the black cloak.

"It's the only way someone will be able to tell what side you're on."

"Oh." I slipped on the dark jeans and buttoned up the black shirt, then I put on the black cloak.

"Might want to put these on too." He held out a pair of combat boots.

"Thanks." We walked out the door and all I can say is, I'm impressed with this place. There were people rushing in and out of the corridors. We reached what looked like the main room. The floor and walls made out of cement. Maps lined the walls and kerosene lamps were scattered about. A large table was covered in weapons; guns, swords, knives, ammunition, and even pipes.

"How did you guys get all these weapons?"

"We find them when we go through some of the abandoned houses, while searching for survivors." We kept walking and reached a dim hallway; a ladder and a hatch were barely visible. Starrk stopped at the bottom of the ladder and looked at me expectantly.

"What?"

"Do you want to go outside and take a look?" I looked up at the hatch.

_'Do I really want to?'_

Part of me wanted to and the other was having its doubts.

"Sure."

"You're going to need a weapon." With that, we turned back to the main room and I was trying to pick a suitable weapon.

_'Hmmm, decisions decisions. What should I get?'_

"If I were you I'd get a sword. They work better." This was_ not_ Starrk's voice. I turned around and saw Nel holding a thin katana. I looked around for Starrk.

"Where the hell did Starrk go?" Nel shrugged.

"I dunno. I haven't seen him" I turned back to the weapons and saw a thin sword with a blue handle.

_'This'll do perfect.'_

"Is it just me, or are you regretting the kiss that you gave me before you ditched me?" Nel suddenly said and I turned to look at her, eyebrows raised.

"No. I don't regret it."

"So then, why the hell are you avoiding me?" She demanded and then her eyes widened.

"_Don't_ tell me." She said shocked. I cocked my head to the side, confused.

"What?"

"Was that your first kiss?"

"No.."

"So then why do you get all distant whenever we talk?" I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"I don't know, I have a lot of things on my mind right now." Nel sighed and grabbed some ammunition.

"What are you doing?"

"Grabbing bullets for my gun?"

"No, I mean, _why_ are you grabbing those?" She looked at me and crossed her arms.

"You can't go out there alone you know. I'm going with you." I strapped the thin sword to my back.

"Fine by me."

* * *

_The outside world did not look anything like I had imagined._

I thought that everything had been completely wiped out by the bombings. Instead, it looked like something from _The Book of Eli _or somethin' close to that. Buildings were empty, stores had their windows broken, burnt grass and there was a dusty feeling in the air. I licked my now dry lips and watched as papers flew about. I turned to look at Nel, who was busy reading one of the papers that had blown by.

"I thought you said that everything was gone?" She looked over at me, annoyed.

"By everything, I meant any kind of protection the country had before the bombings began." She rolled her eyes and walked past me, slapping the paper that she had been reading on my chest. I grabbed it and read it.

**_ 'The end of time's are here!_**

**_ Aizen's army is going to wipe us all!_**

**_ Let's join him and save ourselves!_**

**_ Grant him his objective!_**

**_ Find the blue-haired-'_**

I crumpled up the stupid paper and threw it behind me. I walked over and joined Nel at the entrance of a windowless building. She looked at me with a knowing expression.

"Angry?"

"No, I'm fuckin' pissed that's what! I still don't understand why Aizen's so fuckin' bent on finding me?" Nel frowned.

"Didn't they say that it was because you had escaped?" I shook my head.

"If that were the reason, tell me why the hell is he not after you? You escaped with me that night!" Nel pondered for a moment.

"I don't know then." I looked at the building in front of us.

"So, why are we here?" Nel grinned at me.

"To look for supplies, that's what." She pushed the door open and took out a pair of flashlights from her cloak.

"You had this planned out, didn't you?" She smiled and handed me a flashlight.

"Take your sword out. You never know what we'll find here." We went in; our flashlights hardly helping. The smell of rotting meat and bodies wafted across my nose.

"It smells like shit in here."

"Yeah, we should have put some Vicks vapor rub to mask the smell." I turned to look at her.

"Geez Nel, You sound like you're use to this kind of stuff." She playfully punched me and began making her way deeper into the building, until she stopped.

"What's up Nel?" I asked.

"You can handle yourself, right?"

"Yeah sure, why?"

"I was thinking, it'd be a lot quicker if we split up and went to the opposite ends of the building. I'll go right and you go left." I shrugged my shoulders.

"Sure."

So we split up and I carefully made my way over. It was the middle of May and without any air conditioning or windows, the place was hot and suffocating. When I found what appeared to be a kitchen, I was already drenched in sweat. I placed my flashlight on a dusty table and took the black cloak off. I went to grab my flashlight and when I did, my hand made contact with something wet and sticky.

"Ew what the fuck...?" I said quietly and wiped my hand on my black jeans. I shined the flashlight on the area; a nasty pool of blood was there along with other stuff that I didn't want to know about. I went into the kitchen and found an empty trash bag, and I began to look for food.

I groaned when I saw that most of it was spoiled and nasty-lookin'. I looked at the high shelves and climbed on the counter, grinning when I found plenty of jars filled with cherries and olives for drinks.

_'I wonder what this place use to be like before?'_

I tossed them all in the bag and looked around for more stuff. I almost cried out in joy when I found cases of bottled water. I took one out and began to drink; not caring if it was warm.

_'Hey, water is water, dude'_ I thought to myself and sighed in content afterwards. I kept looking and found a box of matches and lots of alcoholic beverages. I shrugged and placed them in the bag as well. I was walking around, flashlight bobbing, when I tripped on something soft. I got up and backed up a little when I saw a hardly clothed dead body. With fish net stockings and break-neck heels. I shined the flashlight around, only to find more dead bodies dressed in the same fashion. There were rusty poles on a low stage, just a little ways in front of me.

_'We're at a strip club? Why?'_

I kept walking, when I suddenly heard voices nearby. _Male voices_ to be exact. I quietly ran to the stage and ducked under a table; turning my flashlight off. I placed the now large trash bag in front of me for cover. The voices and footsteps got louder as they neared. At first I had considered taking them on, but I didn't know how many there actually were.

_'Maybe I can kill them with my sword?_

_'No. I might get one, but the others will shoot me after that and possibly even take me to that bastard.'_ My pulse quickened when I saw flashlights lighting up the place.

"Why the hell are we even here Jerry? There ain't nothing left anyways?" I heard a guy with a southern accent say to the guy at the front, whom I guessed was Jerry. The Jerry guy looked at him and grinned.

"Hell, wha' do ya thank' Dave? Aizen says that we gotta' find that kid an' tha's wha we're gonna do."

_'Well shit. I should've known.' _I thought, rolling my eyes. There was a total of three guys and most of them I deemed to be a bunch of idiots, except the quiet big guy. He had a bright colored mohawk and as far as I could tell, my 6'1 dwarfed in comparison to this guy. He was probably a head or two taller than me, not to mention_ waaay_ more buff. I suddenly heard a beeping sound go off. It sounded like numbers being counted and then it stopped, but more beeping came from their direction.

From my spot under the table, I could see that they were walking towards my hiding spot. I bit my lip and stayed quiet, hoping that they would go in the other direction. I heard the Dave guy say something about one of the many bodies on the ground.

"Man look at this bitch. My brother has a bigger rack than her." I rolled my eyes at his vulgar comment. I wasn't a prude, far from it in fact. It's just, what's the point of saying those things to a nearly decomposed body?

"Let's go. There is nothing here in this part of the building." I froze when I heard a very deep voice nearby and automatically assumed that it was the big guy talking. I heard someone sigh.

"Alrigh' then. Let's git an' look somewhere else." I heard the sound of footsteps getting quieter as they left. I waited a moment before getting up, picking the trashbag up.

_'Man, that was close.'_ I thought and decided to follow them. Nel was somewhere on the other side of the building. I kept my flashlight off and followed the dim lights; plan forming in my mind.

_'I'll somehow get rid of one at a time, without the other's noticing. I'll have to be quick though.'_

"Ey, why don't we split up? I'll go into the kitchen." I heard Dave say to the other guys, who grunted in approval.

_Perfect_.

Dave split off and was about to go into the kitchen where I'd been in not too long ago. He stopped and I mentally slapped myself for being an idiot. His flashlight was pointing to the black cloak that I had left on the table. He was alone, but I still heard him talking to himself.

"Would ya look at that? One of them Resistance soldiers was here." He stood there for a while longer before making his mind up and going into the dark kitchen.

_'Now's my chance!' _I thought to myself and swiftly went inside; sword drawn out. He must've heard me or somethin' cause he was suddenly blinding me with his light.

"It's y-you!" He stammered, shock written all over his face. I smirked.

"Yeah, it's me White Cloak, the boy _you_ couldn't find that night." He began to reach for his gun, but before he could react, I was already lunging towards him. I jammed my sword into his eye socket and through his head. His mouth wide; a silent scream echoed in the now dark kitchen. I pulled the sword out with a wet, sickening sound and Dave fell to his knees. Blood pooled around us and I bent down to pick up his flashlight, however there was an even bigger problem.

* * *

Near the entrance of the kitchen, Jerry and the tall guy were blocking my escape. I hadn't heard them come in over the sound of Dave's dying screams. I had let my guard down.

_It was a fucking trap all along._

An evil grin splattered on Jerry's face.

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show himself.. If it ain't little Jaegerjaquez. All alone, with two elite soldiers."

"Tch.. So? Does it look like I give a single fuck as to who you are?" I spat to the side and sheathed my sword. I had somewhat already figured out a plan. Jerry raised an eyebrow, amused. He looked over at the tall guy.

"Ey Red, I'll take care of 'im." He turned to look at me.

"If I were you, I would of jus' handed myself over to Aizen. Wha' do ya say? Save yerself the trouble." I frowned at him.

"Not a chance." His expression changed and became serious, yet manic.

He suddenly charged at me and I grabbed a nearby metal pan; chucking it at him with all I had. It didn't knock him out or anything, it only gave me a second to think of somethin' else. I dove across the island in the kitchen, sending pans and silverware flying everywhere.

"Sonovabitch! Git back here!" I heard Jerry yell out and attempted to grab me, but failed when I slammed into the fridge across from him, a salt shaker and a box of matches fell onto my lap. I saw him dive towards me and I got on my stomach, sliding under the space under the island; barely fitting. I heard Jerry crash onto the floor near me and I saw the matches close by. I grabbed them while he was starting to get up and quickly tried lighting a match.

_Once_

_Twice._

The damn thing wouldn't burst into flames. I crawled to the other side and got out from underneath and saw Red nearby.

"Dammit Red! Don't jus' stand there! Git 'im!" I heard Jerry and I reached for a bottle of tequila, that I had somehow missed when I was searching. Red made a grab for me and I swung the bottle like a bat. All those years of baseball had actually come in handy. He howled as blood and alcohol streamed down his face.

_Man, and here I thought this wouldn't be easy._

I quickly struck another match, which surprisingly didn't work, and he made another attempt to grab me. I stepped back and almost ran into the arms of Jerry. I ducked and rolled back onto his legs, knocking him down. He let out a stream of curses and I got up, finally lighting a match. Wasting no time, I threw the match at Red and he instantly went up in flames. He screamed in agony and even managed to light Jerry on fire too.

This was good, except, there were two crazed maniacs with their cloaks on fire and standing by my only exit. They began to run at me and I darted around them to the exit; holding my garbage bag close and hauling ass. I grabbed my cloak on the way out and began to jump over bodies and broken chairs, if I fell over; I'd be fucked. The fire kind of worked as a makeshift flashlight. I turned around to see that Jerry had fallen a few feet back; burned to death.

_But damn! That guy named Red was so fucking persistent!_

He should have been dead by now! Instead, he seemed to be getting faster and gaining on me. I pushed myself farther and I saw light from outside coming through the entrance. I suddenly saw Nel holding a gun and was pointing it a little ways behind me. I was nearly to her when she yelled out, "Get down!"

I lunged to the floor and I heard the sound of a gun going off more than once. I waited to feel the burning grasp on my ankles, but came nothing. I got up and looked back. Red was writhing and screaming in pain, as the fire consumed him. I looked at Nel, who was still pointing the gun at him; as if he going to get up and attack us.

"Why are you always saving my ass? It's kinda making me look like a weakling ya know." She looked at me with an annoyed expression.

"That's because you're an idiot. You're always running into trouble anyways." She rolled her eyes and motioned towards Red, who had stopped thrashing a while ago.

"What happened to that guy anyways? Why is he on fire?" I shrugged at her.

"I simply defended myself by throwing a bottle of alcohol at him and proceeded to throw a burning match at him." I pointed at her gun.

"How'd you learn to shoot a gun anyways?"

"Starrk taught me."

"Starrk sounds like the badass older sibling in one of those movies." I muttered and Nel raised an eyebrow.

"One of those movies?"

"Yeah." She laughed at me and began to walk outside.

"You're such a dork sometimes honestly!" She said laughing and I joined in, but stopped when I remembered something.

"Do you think there's more of them near by?" She stopped to look at me, confused.

"More of _what_?" I pointed back at the building.

"More White Cloaks." She frowned at me.

"That guy was a _White Cloak_?!"

"Um, yeah. Three of them to be exact."

"Why didn't you tell me sooner!? We could have been ambushed! Did they say anything to you?" I nodded my head.

"I heard the guy named Jerry, who I'm guessing was in charge, was telling his guys that the reason they were here was to find me and to take me to Aizen." Nel shook her head and began to walk in the direction of the base. I slightly jogged to keep up with her and she began to talk quickly.

"This isn't good. Not at all. They're way too close to the base." She looked at me.

"You do know that's considered a threat to us?"

"Kind of I guess." She frowned.

"Why is Aizen so damn fascinated with you? It's like you're the final ingredient to completing his master plan."

"Which is?"

"To take over the country. Dammit Grimmjow! I already explained this to you!"

"Whoa! Chill! It was just a question!" She ran a hand through her hair and kept walking quickly; cloak billowing behind.

"It doesn't matter. I have to report this to everyone else, most importantly Starrk." She began to run and I followed closely.

"I think there's a traitor in our base. There's no way _they_ could've started searching so close to the base. If they find it, I'll tell you one thing, it'll be a long, bloody night for us all." We ran to the back of a large, castle-like house and Nel pushed away some bushes; revealing cellar doors. She opened them and motioned for me to climb down the ladder. When I was halfway down, I heard the doors slam shut and it became pretty damn hard to go down without any form of light. I felt air breeze past me and soon heard the sound of feet landing at the bottom.

"You know you could've jumped right?" I heard Nel say to me as I reached the bottom.

"So? What's wrong with going down a ladder?" She turned on her flashlight as we started walking down the long corridor and noticed my trash bag.

"Did you find anything good?"

"Hell yeah I did! I found a lot of water and drinks." I said proudly.

"Drinks? As in..?" She asked.

"Fruity drinks that we wouldn't be able to legally drink if things were normal."

"Oh." I took out a bottle and opened it, taking a sip. There was fruity hint to it and I offered the bottle to Nel.

"Want some?" She shook her head.

"No thanks."

"Come on! Just a small sip." She thought it over for a moment.

"Fine." She took a small sip and gave it back to me.

"Make sure you put that away before we get there." I closed the bottle and stuffed it back into the bag.

"Already taken cared of."

* * *

We kept walking and reached a large, steel door. Nel pounded her fist on the surface and a voice called out.

"Who is it?"

"Number 3! Open up!" A short moment later, the door opened and a man in a black cloak stepped out of the way and saluted Nel.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Miss Nelliel." He said and Nel smiled at him.

"Sam, how many times have I told you? Just call me Nel, you're a year older than me anyways and please, treat me like a normal person." She said kindly.

"My apologies." Nel patted his shoulder.

"That's okay. Right now however, there's been a problem. I need you to evacuate everyone in the base."

"Everyone?! Nel you do realize that there's got to be over four hundred living here?"

"I know that, but if we don't hurry, who knows how much closer _they _will get to us." I saw Sam gulp and he nodded, rushing off in the other direction. I felt a tug on my arm.

"C'mon! Let's go find Starrk." She said and hauled me down the other corridor.

We soon reached a fancy, wooden door. The sound of voices were heard behind it and without caring, she swung it open. I'm guessing that they were as surprised as we were. To say that the room was big, would be an understatement. A long table wrapped around the room and it kinda reminded me of a courtroom, but that's not what I noticed. There was a group of elderly people dressed like everyone else in the base. Starrk had been in the middle of arguing with them and it was even more awkward when they all looked up and watched as we made our way over to them. There was one lady in particular, that I couldn't look at directly in the face.

She was thin and had powder-white hair; not to mention the wrinkled, sagging skin on her face. But what bothered me the most was the way she stared me down. You know that old lady that stares you down when she catches you doing some shit that you weren't suppose to? Yeah, that's the kind of lady that was staring me down with her piercing eyes. I shifted under the many gazes and there was an uncomfortable silence. Starrk looked annoyed and questioned us.

"What are you two doing here? Don't you know that it's rude to barge in without per-?"

"Oh spare me! Save the educational speeches for later. Right now, we're in some deep shit with The White Cloaks." I heard the old lady gasp.

"How dare you Nelliel! That was extremely unladylike!" Nel rolled her eyes and before she could reply, Starrk cut her off.

"Nelliel, we already know that we have deeper problems with them." The old lady stunned me when she jabbed her finger in the air; in my direction to be exact.

"We _MUST_ get rid of him! He is going to corrupt us I tell you! He's going be the end of us! Can't you all see?! He's part of Aizen's plan!" My eye began to twitch and I felt the beginning of a painful headache.

_I snapped_

"Listen lady! I didn't pick to be involved with this bullshit! Aight!? So sit your old ass down and listen to what we gotta say!" I paused for a moment and looked at Starrk. "A couple of minutes ago, Nel and I went to town and searched an old bar. We split up and I was attacked by three White Cloak elite soldiers." Starrk looked alarmed at this and looked at the other elders, who also looked alarmed; save for the old lady. She was seething and I could've sworn she was turning purple.

An old man spoke up and looked at me.

"Young man, tell us. What happened to the soldiers? Surely you didn't lead them here?" I shook my head.

"They've been taken cared of. I'm sure that no one has survived being burned and shot many times." The old man looked surprised and Starrk grinned at him.

"I told you, he's going to make a great addition to us. With his strength and intelligence, I'm sure that he's going to be the best that we'll ever have." The old lady turned her nose up.

"Such a rude and foul mouth he is indeed." Starrk waved her off and looked at us both.

"I want you two to go up to the balconied room, Nelliel you know where that is. I'll get everyone informed and we'll try to start evacuating civilians. I'm almost positive that when they find out that three of their elites are dead, they're going to suspect and check the trackers." I looked at him confused.

"Trackers?" He nodded at me.

"Yeah, it's a device that was created by my father and unfortunately, Aizen as well. Aizen had his own scientists create identical copies of the original tracker. All of his soldiers as well as mine, are equipped with trackers. Basically what a tracker does is, that it can tell the user where someone is nearby and their ranking." He took one out and put the tracker on his ear. A clear, green lense projected out and covered his left eye.

"All you got to do is press this button on the side to turn it on. Also, it can voice record and if you leave your line of communication open, anyone can hear what is going on." He pressed into the side and a beeping sound was heard; six dots were displayed on the screen. I thought back to when I heard the beeping sound during my encounter with the White Cloaks. My eyes widened in realization.

"Dammit! They knew I was there from the beginning! Why did they wait to ambush me in the kitchen?" Starrk looked over at Nel.

"Did you get rid of the tracker?" Nel looked pale.

"N-no I didn't even know that he was a White Cloak, much less that there were three of them."

"Well shit. They're definitely on their way if that's the case. I have to start evacuating now to get us a head start." He began to walk out, when he turned around.

"Go upstairs. _This_ I'm sure, will have many losses on both sides." Nel frowned at him.

"Starrk you know you can't get rid of me easily. I'll fight alongside you! We'll defeat them easily!" Starrk shook his head at her and placed a hand on her head.

"No Nel. Just listen to me, you too Grimmjow. No matter what happens, you have to go to the base in Idaho. From there I want _you_, Grimmjow, to be commander of the base and to lead The Resistance." I blinked in surprise.

"Hold up. You want _me_, a teenager who probably can't do shit, to be in charge of an entire group of people, who don't like me?" Starrk chuckled.

"Exactly. However, you're very wrong. It's too bad we never got a chance to test out your strength. You probably don't realize this but, you're waay stronger than you think. I'm sure of that." He turned to look at Nel.

"Nelliel, I want you to serve second in command. I know you'll try to argue with me, but I want you to be safe. Don't cry, you got to be strong and make it out of here alive." He turned to look at me again.

"Grimmjow, please promise me that you'll take good care of her. She means the world to me and is all I have left, blood-wise anyways."

"I promise, but why are ya makin' it sound like you're gonna die? You'll meet up with us at the base right?"

"_Right_!?"

He smiled.

"I can't promise anything right now. Maybe I'll die, maybe I won't. There's no telling what the future holds for us." He said quietly and Nel tried wiping her tears away.

"Just answer the damn question Starrk. Are you going to meet us at the base?" He stayed quiet for a moment.

"Please say that you are! I don't want to lose you too!" She hugged him and they stayed like that for a while.

Meanwhile, I began to feel out of place and soon I felt awkward. I looked away and pretended to be interested in an old painting on the wall. I never had any siblings, as far as I knew anyways. Hell, it was just mom and me. No dad or siblings. So I had no idea what it felt like to lose one, but I knew the pain of losing my mother. It hurts when you're the one to find her and it hurts a lot more when you begin to blame yourself for it. You begin to kill yourself slowly, thinking about all things you could've done to prevent it.

I was jolted from my thoughts when Starrk handed me a piece of paper.

"Take this and show it to the soldiers at the base." I nodded and tucked it into the many pockets in the cloak. Starrk walked towards the door and was almost out, when Nel yelled out to him.

"What do you want us to do now?" He stopped and didn't turn around this time.

"Go upstairs, lock yourselves in the room, and pray." With that, he left and the elderly people walked out behind him. I turned to look at Nel.

"Who were those old people anyways?"

"They're the councils. Come on, let's go upstairs." She said and began to run out the door. We ran up some stairs and ran out of another door. Not too long after we had stepped into the house, a loud siren began to wail out; hauntingly familiar to that of a tornado siren. Nel stopped for a moment.

"They've turned on the emergency alarm. My guess is that by now, they've evacuated the medical staff and most of the civilians living in the base."

The house was crazy on the outside as well as in the inside. The main hallway was about three stories high and there was a stairwell that wrapped around the walls and didn't stop until it reached the third floor. Before I could say anything, Nel was already running up the stairs and I followed along, careful to not look over the railing. We got to the third floor and kept running until we reached a pale, wooden door. We went in and Nel shut the door, locking it. The room was large and there was a bed along the center wall. What caught my attention was the giant window across the room. There was a ledge lined with pillows, great for watching. Beyond the glass were thick tree branches from a tree next to the small, and I mean _small_ balcony.

Nel sat on the ledge and I joined her, watching and waiting. The sky was starting to get dark and stars began to shine.

"It's so beautiful tonight." I heard Nel whisper.

"Yeah, it is." _Damn if I die, at least I'll die under a beautiful sky_. I blinked. Where the fuck did that come from? I stared intently at a forest that I never noticed, and watched as the darkness had given it an eerie vibe.

"Maybe nothing'll happen." I said to Nel and she shook her head.

"Maybe, but we can't get overconfident." The siren had stopped and a silence fell throughout the building. There was a knock with a muffled question.

"Are you two in there?" It was that Sam guy from earlier.

"Yeah we're in here!" Nel yelled out and the sound of heavy boots faded away.

"Do you have a plan?" I asked her and she nodded; never taking her eyes away from the forest.

"Yeah I do." She paused briefly, before continuing.

"We'll run out and run past the garden and into the forest. Beyond the forest, there's a large field with tall grasses. We'll go there and we'll see where that takes us." I stared at her for a moment and looked back at the forest. Everything was quiet, until I saw a figure in white walk out of the forest. Followed by another.

And another.

By now, I had lost track as to how many there were. A sea of white with weapons covered the endless stretch of land by the house.

"Holy shit! There's got to be over a hundred in total!" I looked at Nel, who had fear written across her face and she had grown pale.

"Nel, if we don't make it, I just want you to know that, I'm glad that I met you. I also thank you for looking out for me when I was in a coma." She looked at me.

"Grimmjow, if we don't make it. I just want to let you know, I'm really pissed off at you for bringing these assholes to us. Other than that, I'm happy that I met you too." I stared at her.

"But I forgive you for that."

"Thanks." I snapped. I looked out the window. They had already made it past the garden and were closing in on the house. They suddenly split into two groups, one going around the house and the other going left.

The sound of the door being kicked down was heard along with yelling and gunshots. Breaking glass was heard and the alarm rang out again. We both turned to look at the door. Even though it was locked, I doubt the door itself would be of any use, seeing as they easily knocked down the front door.

Suddenly, Nel screamed bloody murder. I turned to look towards the window. There was a White Cloak bastard on a branch, not five feet away. His covered face did little and his eyes were barely visible under the eye holes. He stared at us in hatred.

I fell back and grabbed Nel as I got up.

_Fuck this! I'm **not** gonna die tonight!_

* * *

**A/N: yeah it's a pretty long chapter. And yeah, I got the whole 'trackers' idea from the scouters in Dragon Ball Z. Hope you guys liked it though! Please Review and tell me what you guys think!**


	9. Invasion

**I don't own Bleach.**

**A/N: I was wondering if I should write another version of 'Moving on once Again', but instead of being in Grimmjow's POV, it'll be in Nel's POV? Please PM me and let me know soon! Thank You!:)**

**Warning: violence, blood and language. The usual stuff I guess.**

**Enjoy!**

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I ran out of the door with Nel in tow with one thought in my head: _Why the hell didn't I just attack the guy with my sword? Oh yeah. I forgot. He could've used his gun and killed us both even before I took out the damn thing._ Down on the first floor, black and white cloaks flapped wildly and the sound of gunfire was deafening.

"Miss Nelliel! Get back in your room now!" Sam yelled out as he defended himself from two White Cloaks. I leaned over the railing.

"They're coming through the window!" I yelled out at him.

"Then r-!" He grunted as he kicked one of the soldiers away from him. The other White Cloak noticed us on the third floor and began going up the stairs quickly. Nel gasped and ran back into the room. I followed her in, and the sound of glass breaking reached our ears. The guy on the tree had broken the window and was getting in, Nel screamed and we ran out. By now, the other guy was up to the second floor. I froze when I saw that Sam had been outnumbered and couldn't defend himself anymore. Blood streaked down his face and he had a gashed cheek. His pale eyes looked up at me from my spot by the railing.

"Commander Jaegerjaquez! RUN!" He yelled out at me as one of the White Cloaked bastards impaled him with a jagged sword. I heard a choked scream and I paled slightly when one of them noticed me. I heard him say something to the others and they looked up at me.

"Shit." I muttered and I saw them lunge towards the stairs. My eyes shifted back down towards Sam's lifeless eyes, still fixed on me. I felt someone grab the back of my cloak.

"Come on! Let's go!" Nel pulled me, dragging me away. My legs moving to their own accord.

"Where are we going?" I asked her, not really focusing.

"We're going to the roof- hurry up!" She kept dragging me along and looked at me.

"Snap out of it will ya!? You can't just mope over every person that dies in front of you! You gotta pick yourself up and keep moving soldier!" She yelled over her shoulder and that got me going.

_Damn, for once she's actually right._

We ran and soon reached a door. My heart stopped for a second when Nel tried to open the door and the knob wouldn't turn. I looked back and heard heavy footsteps getting closer. The gunfire and yelling still kept going. I frantically looked back at Nel, who was trying to get the door to open.

"Here, let me do this." I twisted the knob and realized that it was stuck.

"Hurry! He's getting closer!" With one hard twist, I opened the door and we scrambled in. I slammed the door and the last thing I saw was a white hood through the third floor banister. Nel pushed me out of the way and fumbled around. A faint _click_ was heard as she locked the door. Suddenly, there was a loud _BAM_ as the White Cloak slammed into the door.

_BAM! BAM! BAM!_

The sound of the knob twisting furiously was suddenly heard and we backed away from the door. I looked over at Nel.

"So what do we do now?" I asked quietly. She gulped and stared at the door.

"We're going to escape from the roof." She said in a hushed whisper, as if the soldier on the other side was going to hear.

"How? That's gotta be a sixty foot drop?!" I hissed back.

"We'll get to the tree and climb down."

"Yeah but there's a guy on the tree."

"He's probably inside!" She whispered loudly.

As if on cue, the blows against the door doubled and that had us hauling ass up the rickety metal stairs.

* * *

We pushed open the rickety trapdoor, revealing the starry night above. I climbed out and helped Nel climb out. There was one thing about the roof however. It was steep.

_Very steep._

It was hard to tell where the roof ended and the emptiness started.

_ I could stay up here and possibly get killed, or fall down sixty feet to the ground and die. Or, fall down sixty feet, get paralyzed and then get killed._

I hated to admit it but, at this point, my options sucked. I glanced over at Nel, who was starting to swing her leg over a railing by the tree.

"What are you doing!?" She looked at me in confusion.

"I'm going to get on the tree to climb down?"

"B-b." She cocked her head to the side and watched as I bit the inside of my cheek.

"The hell is wrong with you?" I felt a blush spread across my cheeks.

"Um, there's a small problem." She looked at me annoyed.

"What?"

"I um, don't know how to climb a tree." I refused to look at her. I heard her release an exasperated sigh.

"I'll be right back." She said and went back into the attic. She came back shortly, holding some rope.

"Nel that's not enough rope though!"

"Damn, you're right. Hold on, I'll go get some mor-"

_CRASH!_

The sound of the door in the attic breaking apart was heard.

"Shit, nevermind." She wrapped a loop around her waist tightly, making several knots. She walked over and did the same to me.

"What are you doing?"

"We'll do what mountain climbers do."

"We're gonna fall!"

"No we won't, I can climb like a monkey!" She said childishly.

"Nel, we don't have time for games! We gotta get the hell outta here!" She ignored me and started going over the rail.

"Grimm, get off of the trapdo-"

_BANG!_

The trapdoor underneath me jumped up, lifting me about an inch in the air. _They_ were right under our feet.

"Come on! Let's go!"

"What if I fall?!"

"The rope will catch you!"

"No it won't! You'll end up falling too!" She looked at me surprised.

"I will?"

_BANG!_

I flew over the door, landing on my side and I started sliding down the side. I was about a couple of feet away from Nel.

"Don't you dare fall! DONT FALL!"

_BANG!_

The door slammed open and a white cloak climbed out. Their barely visible eyes searched and easily found me. He quickly lunged out and flung himself towards me. I got up and sprinted towards Nel, my sword's sheath hitting my back with every step I took.

"GO! GO! GO!" I screamed at her.

"I'M GOING!"

The guy was getting closer.

"I'm almost to the tree!"

My foot suddenly slipped and I started sliding down.

"Shit!"

"Hold on!" Nel pulled on the rope and I began sliding in an arch, barely dodging the guy just as he charged at me. I pulled myself up and felt a faint brush of fingers on my black hood. I ran faster and jumped onto the tree; shaking the branch badly.

"HEY! I'm trying to climb here!"

"Just keep going!" I yelled back at Nel. I looked up at the roof and saw that the White Cloak soldier was inching his hands along the gutter; as if it was like climbing monkey bars.

But that's not what irked me.

_Where the hell are the others that had gotten in the attic?_

We kept climbing and suddenly, three white cloaks were on the roof. I was about to reach the trunk and I saw white fabric through my peripheral vision. The tree shook and one of them was climbing down the tree towards us.

"Grimm! Jump!" Nel shrieked up at me and I looked down at her.

"Hell no! We're too high up!"

"Just do it!" She said less loudly.

"One!"

"No.."

"Two!"

"I SAID NO DAMNIT!"

"THREE!"

I let go at the same time she did. It seemed as if time had stopped as we fell through the dark sky.

* * *

I fell onto the hard ground lying sideways.

"Ow, ow, ow!" I rolled onto my back and tried to calm my erratic breathing. I looked over at Nel, who was starting to sit up.

"You okay?" She looked at me with a pissed off expression.

"No you idiot! I'm not!"

There was a rattling sound from above and I felt like my heart was on the verge of exploding. The guy that was on the tree had leapt from his spot and was now falling through the air. He landed a lot more gracefully than we had and he drew his white hood back, revealing his face. The guy was young, older than us, but young. Maybe around his twenties? His face showed malice and his smirk widened slightly, before sudden anger fell over him. Nel, who was closer to him, tried getting up. He quickly reached her though, and he began kicking her side.

"You stupid bitch! Did you think you could get away from me!? Huh!?" Nel shrieked as he grabbed her hair and pulled her up. Anger boiled inside me and I grunted from the pain as I tried getting up.

"Let go of her! Asshole! What the hell did she ever do to you!?" He looked at me and cackled.

_Shit this guy is fucking insane._

"What does it matter to you, Jaegerjaquez!? You're going to be dead soon anyways!" He cackled again and pointed at me.

"What the hell are ya gonna do anyways!? Use your stupid ass sword!? You can barely get up and stand straight, much less even be able to get the damn thing out!"

"Would you shut the fuck up already!?" I yelled and his eyes narrowed dangerously.

"I don't think so. I'm gonna make you watch!"

_Watch what?_

I clutched my arm as I felt it begin to throb painfully, which I now thought was broken.

_Again_.

He sprang forward and Nel screamed as his hands closed around her neck. Her scream soon turned into a strangled cry.

"No! Nel!" As I moved forward, I felt the rope around my waist tug and an idea came to my mind. I grabbed the rope between us and threw it over the bastard's head; making a loose loop around his neck. He looked at me quizzically.

"What the f-" At that moment, I yanked the rope as hard as I could. He dropped Nel and gripped at the rope around his neck. His wild eyes looked at me and he gasped; face turning a shade of purple now.

"This'll teach you to never hit women again. Hold on. Let me take that back, cause after this, your days of hurting others are over." With one more hard tug, I heard a snap and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed in a heap on the ground. The rope had severed his head from his body. I heard Nel coughing and I stumbled towards her. I would have asked her if she was alright, until I heard rustling above.

There was another White Cloak on the tree and the sound of gunfire and yelling raged on. I looked up at the roof and saw more of them coming out. I looked away when I saw one of them hold up one of our men's decapitated head. I grit my teeth when I realized that it was Sam's head; they had sliced most of his face into shreds. I heard what sounded like cheering and shouts coming from them as they held the bloody mess and waved their swords in the air.

"Those bastards!" I said through clenched teeth. Further in the distance I heard a woman screaming and the sound of the cellar doors opening.

_They would be upon us any second now._

"Son of a bitch!" I slammed my fist into the ground and hoisted Nel to her feet as she clutched her side. We looked at each other and broke into a run towards the garden. The sound of feet landing heavily was heard and I wouldn't dare look back. We ran through the crops and a familiar feeling came over me. I heard Nel rasp through her bruised throat. I suddenly felt a tug on the bloodied rope and for a split second I feared that they caught up to us. I looked back and felt relieved when I saw that it had gotten caught in a tomato plant. I slowed slightly and went to untangle the rope.

"Go! Don't stop running!" I shouted towards Nel and we kept going down the endless field.

I looked towards the base and felt my heart sink. Nel gasped as she turned around next to me.

"Oh no." She said, her voice quivering and on the verge of tears.

Fire flared from the windows and the house was blazing; illuminating the night sky. Faint yelling was heard along with explosions going off. I was so mesmerized by the fire that I didn't notice the figure lumbering towards us. I heard Nel scream and I whipped around, just in time to duck as a baseball bat was swung towards me. I dodged as the bastard kept swinging and just as I was about to take my sword out, I fell on my ass.

_The fucking rope!_

I looked up with wide eyes and slightly flinched as the bat swung towards my face. I braced myself and instead of feeling pain, I felt something drip onto my face. I opened my eyes and saw lifeless eyes staring back at me. I reacted and moved back; eyes focused on the bloody pitchfork sticking out of his midsection. The figure fell to the ground with a heavy thud and I began to search their cloak. I managed to find a gun and I made sure that the safety was on, later shoving it into one of the pockets in my cloak.

_'Why the fuck didn't he just use his gun instead? Stupid.'_ I thought, shaking my head.

I took out my sword and angrily cut the damn rope off. I made my way to cut the rope from Nel's waist. I looked over at Nel and saw that she had tears streaking her cheeks. She looked at the burning house sadly.

"Where's Starrk?" She whispered.

I looked towards the base and then towards the forest not too far from us.

"Come on. Let's go. It won't do us any good standing here. We got a base in Idaho to reach." I saw Nel shake her head and continued to stare absently at the base. Blood speckled her hair and on her face too. I grabbed her bloody arm and began pulling her towards the forest.

"Come on. We have to keep moving." I looked at the base one last time and began running into the forest, dragging Nel with me.

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**A/N: Sorry that this chapter is short *dodges tomatoes*. Please let me know if I should write Nel's version!**


	10. What Happens Next

**I don't own Bleach. Tite Kubo does!**

**Guest that recently reviewed: That sounds like a good idea to do this chapter in Nel's POV from the start to this point, but honestly it would probably take more than one chapter. So I decided to make this chapter with both Nel's and Grimmjow's POV, like you also suggested.:3 But thanks for the idea! It definitely made it a bit easier for me to write this chappy! Thank you!:)**

**A/N: However, I have now decided to make, Moving on once Again: Nel's POV!**

**Enjoy my fellow readers!**

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**Grimmjow's POV-**

We ran throughout the dark forest in silence; save for the occasional sniff I heard from Nel. We made it out of the forest and came upon another grassy field. I heard Nel stop behind me and I turned around and grabbed her hand: dragging her once again. We kept going for what seemed like hours and until we reached an empty road.

_Where the hell are we?_

I looked around for signs and spotted one not too far from us. I jogged over and read it.

**Colorado**

**10MI.**

_Shit! Last I checked, we were near the border of Kansas and Missouri!_

The night had started to dim and vegetation became scarce, making the area look dry and dusty. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs and the handgun, we didn't even have a map or compass to see what direction we are going in. I guess I'll have to look for one when we reach a town.

"We don't have any water.." I heard Nel say as she began to drag her feet next to me. We slowly went up a hill that was covered in loose sand and patches of grass here and there.

"Damn, we need to find a place to rest in cause I'm dead tired." Nel nodded her head in agreement. We started going down the hill and walked on the deserted road. I was too busy watching the scenery that I didn't notice that Nel had stopped.

"Hey, what's up?" I looked in the direction that she was staring at and she pointed. Sure enough, there was a cluster of houses. However, some of them had been affected by the bombings and looked like they were in the middle of construction. We reached the neighborhood and entered the first house that was in somewhat good shape, other than the large amount of blood at the entrance. I handed Nel the handgun and I took out my sword. She pulled on her black hood and I did the same as we inspected to make sure that it was safe.

When all seemed good, I drew my hood back and made my way towards the kitchen. Nel was already there and was opening the large fridge. She pulled out bottled water and handed me one and we sat down. Well, she sat on a chair next to a table and I sat on the edge of the table. I took a long swig, not caring if I was guzzling the water down loudly. I looked at Nel, who was busy watching out of the large window by the fancy sink. Curiosity getting the better of me, I decided to ask her.

"So, do ya wanna tell me what _that_ was all about back there?" She looked at me confused.

"What do you mean?"

"That guy that was about to kill ya." She looked back to the window and for a second I saw a far away expression slide by and then get replaced with a confused look.

"I don't know him."

"You're lying."

"No I'm not."

"Yes you are."

"I don't want to talk about it." She said solemnly and continued looking out the window. I sighed.

"Fine! Don't tell me then. The guy obviously knew you! And pretty well if ya ask me!"

"Aren't you so damn nosy." She said and rolled her eyes. She got up and walked towards the stairs near the entrance. I sat there staring at my now empty water bottle for a moment before chucking it on the floor and made my way towards the stairs.

_'She's acting like a kid again.'_ I thought to myself and went up the stairs. I walked down the hallway towards the only room with the door closed. I stood there, unsure as to whether or not I should enter the room.

_'This is stupid.'_ I hesitated and turned the door handle, letting myself in. My guess was that this room was the master suite or somethin'. It had tall double doors with golden inlays. Nel was sitting on the large bed and staring at the large window. I shuffled my feet towards her and plopped down next to her. She was resting her head on her knees and decided to cover her face with her arms. She continued to ignore me and my childish side decided to make itself known.

"Awe come on Nel! Don't be mad at me!" I craned my head to look at her face and she turned away. I pouted (geez, me pouting?) and tried to get under her arms.

"Don't." She said muffled.

"So you're mad at me?"

"..."

I sighed loudly and crossed my arms.

_'Guess I'll have to get serious.'_

"Why do you always have to act so damn childish?" I looked over at her and slightly leaned back. She was glaring at me and it looked like she had been crying again.

"Says the one that was acting like a five year old just now. Why the hell cant you take no for an answer. I already told you, I don't want to talk about it!"

"Whatever."

We sat there for a moment that felt like hours, the faint sound of water leaking from the roof was heard. Nel stood up from the bed and walked out of the room; closing the door behind her. I sat there, alone again. I laid on my stomach and buried my face in a pillow.

"Dammit!" The scream was muffled, but still loud. I didn't care if she heard me. Why is everything so damn complicated? I sat up, exhaling loudly and ran a hand through my hair. I got up after a moment and made my way down the stairs.

"We'll head out in the morning." I swiveled around and saw Nel sitting on the couch by the staircase.

"Don't do that."

"Do what?"

"Sneak up on me like that." Nel shrugged and got up, making her way to the kitchen. The sky had taken a hue of red and orange.

_'Damn, the days sure are going by fast.'_

I sat at the table and watched as Nel rummaged through drawers and pulled out a lighter and began lighting candles.

"Are you hungry?" I nodded and she pulled out canned food from the cupboards.

"Hmmm, guess they didn't have a variety of much?" I said as the only kinds were beets and sauerkraut.

* * *

By the time we were done eating, the sky was dark.

"Well, I'm going upstairs and see if the shower is working."

"I'll go with you." We went up to the master bedroom and I went into the bathroom to check. Nel stood by with a candle. The sound of water hitting the tub reached my ears and I grinned.

"I'll go outside and keep watch, while you shower." I said as I got up and out of the bathroom.

"Thanks." I nodded and made my way to the window. Nel looked at me quizzically.

"What are you doing?"

"The roof juts out and I figured I could just climb onto the roof." A sly grin was on her face.

"What?"

"Nothing." I looked at her confused and shrugged.

"Whatever, give me a shout when you're done so that I can take a shower too." I slid open the window and carefully balanced myself on the ledge.

_All you gotta do is keep yourself from looking down and climb._

I thought I was doing great, until I looked down.

_Shit_

My palms got slippery and I dug my nails into the roof.

_Almost there!_

I grabbed on and threw a leg over and finally got on the roof. I crawled on my stomach until I reached what I thought was the center of the roof. It _was_ pretty dark, so I couldn't really see much of anything.

_Well this was pointless._

I kept crawling and found a staircase on the edge that led down to what looked like a garage.

_Shit if I'd known about this, I would've just used the stairs ._

I climbed down and cautiously made my way to the garage that was connected to the house. I looked around and found a brick, throwing it at a low window. I went in and took out my flashlight, shining it. I cried out in joy when my eyes landed on a shiny, black SUV. I opened the door, which was surprisingly unlocked, and got in. I sat there, when it suddenly dawned on me that I didn't know where the keys were. I looked around and finally found them in the glove compartment. I grinned and stuck them into the ignition and turned it on; goosebumps formed on my arms and I shuddered. It was gassed up and ready to go.

_Which means we'll get to Idaho faster and we don't have to walk the whole way!_

I turned it off and got out, making my towards the garage door that was still shut. I punched and kicked but the door wouldn't budge.

_Guess I'll have to step it up a notch._

I got back into the SUV and turned it on.

_This better work_.

I slammed my foot on the gas and braced myself for the impact.

_CRASH!_

The sound of splintering wood and the roar of the engine filled my ears as the SUV crashed through the large door. I drove a little before backing up into the garage and got out. I jogged towards the front and let myself in, happy with my new discovery. I went upstairs and decided to keep this to myself until tomorrow morning. I raided the large walk-in closet for something to wear to sleep tonight. Since there were only two of us, the SUV will have a lot of space for stuff to take with us. I stopped as I saw a lump on the large bed and noticed that Nel had already gone to bed.

_'She must be exhausted. With all that's goin' on, I'm surprised that she's keeping it together.'_

I went into the bathroom and found that Nel had refilled the tub with warm water. I washed myself as quickly as I could and came out to find that Nel hadn't woken up. I quietly crawled in next to her and let the exhaustion take over.

* * *

**Nel's POV-**

As soon as I heard Grimmjow leave, I stripped off my clothes and inspected myself for any other cuts or bruises. Finding none, I carefully checked the cabinets and found a plug to fill the tub. I stepped into the now full tub of semi warm water. The shadows danced along the wall with the flame of the red candle I found downstairs. I sat with my knees to my chest for what seemed like the hundredth time today. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath.

_One._

_Two._

_Thre- Oh who am I kidding? No! I can't give up like that! I have to stay strong! That's it! The candles are getting to me! Yeah. It's the candles._

With that thought in mind, I washed up, got out and dried myself before putting on some silky pajamas. I stopped for a moment.

_What's that sound?_

It sounded like splintering wood? I stood in the middle of the room waiting to see if I heard it again.

_Absolute silence._

I tip-toed to the window and watched, waiting and hoping that _they_ hadn't found us. I stiffened as I suddenly saw Grimmjow run across the yard.

_Did they find him!?_

I waited to see if any of them would show up. Suddenly, the door opened and I heard hurried steps enter. I quickly slipped into the large bed and pretended that I was asleep until I heard the sound of footsteps on the staircase and soon enter the room. Grimmjow shut the door quietly and I heard him make his way towards the large closet. The sound of clothes flying out met my ears and I couldn't help but smile and I quickly brought the covers up to my nose. I heard him stop for a moment, before he went into the bathroom and shut the door.

I opened my eyes and stared at the closed door. I heard the sound of water splashing in the bathroom. I turned and laid on my back and continued to stare at the ceiling. I felt a pang of anguish and tears brimmed my eyes. I quickly rubbed them away, but the tears kept coming.

_'How am I going to tell mom that Starrk is gone?' _As soon as the thought crossed my mind, I felt a tear slide down my cheek. I rubbed it away and turned onto my side and again stared at the door. Ever since we found Grimmjow's mom, not once did I see him shed a tear or snap.

_Yet. _

I shut my eyes as I heard wet footsteps in the bathroom along with the door opening. I heard him shuffle across the carpet towards the bed quietly, before he lifted the covers slightly and got in next to me. I lay still with my back towards him and I slowly turned my head to look back at him. His back was towards me and I relaxed slightly.

After a couple of minutes, I heard steady breathing next to me and realized that Grimmjow was fast asleep. I snuggled my head into the pillow and tried to fall asleep, but sleep didn't come easy for me. I tossed and turned for a while and gave up. I got up slowly, pausing every time when I felt Grimmjow stir in his sleep. I eventually made it to the dark bathroom and locked the door. I slumped to the floor, sobbing to the point where my whole body shook.

I cried for all the people that died in the attack last night. The soldiers fought with all they could. I cried for Sam, who I probably cared for way more than I should have. He didn't deserve to die like that, and all I did was turn and run away, leaving him. Leaving all of them to die.

And I cried for Starrk and my mother. I didn't even know if she made it out before they attacked or if she was alright. I shouldn't have listened to Starrk, instead I should have stayed by his side and fought. But I wasn't there for him.

_Starrk is dead._

I sobbed harder as the thought repeated itself over and over again in my head. I can't think that! No! Starrk is still out there somewhere and I'm going to find him! Aside from mom, he's all I have left. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to him.

_But he got hurt._

The tears came harder now and all I could do was keep myself from screaming and waking up Grimmjow. My sadness was suddenly replaced with fear as I remembered our conversation earlier.

_"That guy obviously knew you! And pretty well if ya ask me!"_

I was afraid that _he_ would come back.

_Derek_.

But Derek wasn't the one who almost killed me last night. No, his older brother was the one who was about to do the deed.

_Just like last time._

It's no surprise that Sean and Derek joined The White Cloaks after we caught wind of their plan. I felt a small jolt of pain in my chest at the reminder of those days. I had been a fool and fell into his trap; for Derek and I to get together, that way there wouldn't be anything suspicious and make it a lot easier for them to hack into our systems. Thankfully, Starrk found out and stopped it all from happening. Sean was out of the picture, due to Grimmjow's clever idea..

Now, all I had to worry about was Derek. He was a lot stronger than Sean, even though he was younger than him. More tears slipped as I remembered the hurt I went through that day...

_Flashback~_

_"I never loved you."_

_"W-what? Just yesterday you said-"_

_"Fuck what I said yesterday! It was all an act! Are you that stupid to think that I would actually say that after a fuck!?"_

_"You bastard! I can't believe you!"_

_SLAP!_

_"How could you do this to me Derek!?" He shrugged his shoulders and smirked_, _even though I had slapped him. I backed up as he got closer, until my back hit the wall. I tried to push him but unfortunately, he was a lot stronger than I had first thought. His palms slammed into the wall next to me; caging me with no escape. Fear shot through me as he stared at me, his eyes unreadable. He got closer and whispered,_

_"I don't love you but, there's something about you that draws me to you." He took a handful of my hair, "Maybe it's that pretty, natural hair of yours." He murmured. My heart was beating quickly from the many questions running through my head._

_'Is he going to kill me? What the hell is he doing? One moment he's being an asshole about what happened last night.. And now he's doing this!?' My thoughts were interrupted when he leaned in again._

_"I'm going to kill everyone, especially your brother..he's a nuisance. Then I'm going to burn this place down and take you with me, just like it had been planned." My eyes widened at this._

_'No! How could I've been so naive!?'_

_"Got nothing to say? I don't expect much anyways, you're such a good girl. So compliant and a good fu-"_

_WHAM!_

_I slammed my knee into his gut and had him doubling over in pain. Seeing my opening, I stepped aside and ran out of the room._

_'I have to warn Starrk!'_

_I raced to the central room and failed to hear the distinct beeping from a tracker by the doorway that I was about to pass._

_"Going somewhere?" I heard someone say before being grabbed from behind by a pair of strong arms._

_"Tsk, tsk, tsk. You thought you could get away from us?"_

_"Let go of me!" I shrieked at_ _Derek's older brother, Sean. He grabbed my hair at the base and pulled my head back harshly. The cold metal of a blade met with my throat and I gulped._

_"I will never understand what my idiot brother saw in you. I told him to just shag up with one of the other females but nooo, he ended up picking you, a stupid bitch with no common sense. Even if you are number three in line, you can't even defend yourself without having your big brother or your daddy jumping in to save your pathetic ass." I winced as he pulled my hair again._

_"But this time, Daddy's not going to be able to save you this time. Hell, fuck what Derek's plan was, I'm still going to kill you. I never liked you, always thinking that you know everything about anythi-" The sudden sound of a gun getting cocked interrupted him. I looked over and saw Starrk standing a little ways to the left of us._

_"Let her go." Use to hearing Starrk talk in a relaxed and lazy tone, this new tone was so foreign to me. So threatening and serious. I was suddenly jerked closer and the blade pressed harder into my skin._

_"Or else what? The odds are stacked against you! One wrong move and I might hurt the bitch, so put your gun down 'cause I might as well get it over with." I saw Starrk somewhat hesitated, but put it down anyways. Sean cackled behind me, the blade slightly scraping my throat causing me to whimper as warm liquid slowly trickled down. Starrk's eyes narrowed dangerously._

_"You really shouldn't have done that, Sean." Starrk's voice was so cold and deadly, it was so, not- Starrk. I felt Sean stiffen suddenly and possibly sensed that he fucked up. He backed up a bit and tried dragging me along, but as always I couldn't keep my balance. I stumbled back into Sean, causing the blade to dig deeper into my neck. I cried out and reached up to push the blade away. I fell to the left while Sean went to the right. I hit the floor and saw Starrk lunge towards Sean, as he reached into his back pocket and pulled out a gun, aiming at Starrk._

_"No!" I yelled out as shots went off..._

_Present Time~_

I blinked and found myself sitting in the cold bathroom floor. I was breathing heavily and tried to relax. When I finally did, I quietly went back out and climbed back into the large bed, lying on the edge away from Grimmjow. I was too exhausted to stay awake any longer.

* * *

**A/N: I don't know, I feel like this chapter was kind of meh. I don't know. Let me know what you think and please review! Moving on Once Again-Nel's POV coming soon! Along with a possible new chapter for 'Tomorrow's Wasteland'! It'll depend on the reviews as to how long it'll take**

**Bye, Bye Now!:3**


	11. Old Faces

**I don't own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.**

**I wrote the first part of this while listening to 'Holy Dread!' by Clint Mansell along with 'Waltz for One' by The Real Tuesday Weld, for the second part. I do recommend listening to them and I also recommend listening to 'Finish It' by Clint Mansell when reading the first paragraph:)**

**Enjoy my fellow readers! Hope you guys like this chappy!**

* * *

**Grimmjow's POV**

_Why am I here again? This field, the cloak...this atmosphere. It's so, calm yet deep down, I know it's not gonna last long. Ugh, I don't like this at all- wait a minute. What the hell is that!? I had been walking through the field when I stepped on something, or someone. On the ground there was something, squishy? What the...? I looked closer and immediately reeled back. Oh my... I felt my stomach churn and found myself leaning over... I straightened and wiped my mouth. I began to feel my eyes stinging. Mom? What kind of sick joke is this!? Wasn't it already enough seeing her once like this!? Angry with the fact that my mind decided to conjure up that image in my sleep, I stalked off in no particular direction. I stopped dead and craned my head to the side. What's that noise? It sounds like someone's yelling. I concentrated harder on the sound, blocking out the other noises. My ears were practically twitching as I tried to make out what they were saying. It was definitely a woman's voice that was yelling out a little ways to the left of me in the north. I ran towards the pleading voice, ignoring the small voice telling me that this was stupid and that instead, I should be running away from them. I suddenly froze as I took in the scene in front of me. There was a pair of tall figures near a large tree standing over a girl in a black cloak. I crouched into the tall grass and reached for my sword (when the hell did I get my sword?). As I crept closer, I could make out the voices clearly. My eyes widened as one of them grabbed her collar and pulled her up; her plea increased in volume and the man took out a revolver, shooting her dead on. The shot rang out and echoed across the plain; crows fled from the tree and her pleas were silenced. I stared with wide eyes as the limp body fell to the ground and I watched stupidly as the other man, the taller one, turned around and stared at me. He walked a couple of steps and brought his hood down. He had brown hair that was slicked back with only one strand falling forward. He smiled but it didn't quite reach his brown eyes; there was malice to it. "Grimmjow." The way he said my name made it sound like he was saying 'Greamjow' instead of 'Grimmjow'. He motioned for me to come forward and my heart began to beat at break-neck speed. "Come here." and I swear I felt my heart stop when he said the next words: "My son."_

I jolted awake with a silent gasp and noticed that I was in a cold sweat and alone. The moon was high in the night sky, illuminating the room.

_It's midnight._

I sat up and looked at the bathroom and saw that it was closed. Nel wasn't in the bed anymore, which means that she's in the bathroom. I rubbed my face and slumped back against the headrest.

_'What the hell was that just now? I have no idea how Aizen looks like, yet I feel like that guy was him. As far as I can remember, my real dad actually did have brown hair. But it wasn't slicked back like the guy's hair in my dream. Still, he called me his son. Damn, I'm so confused right now. My mom also had brown hair, but she had blue eyes. So how the hell did I end up with blue hair!?'_

I thought back to the baby pictures I saw back at the motel near the border of Kansas. I did have a slightly darker shade of blue when I was a kid, but in the baby picture it was a very light blonde almost white. _Unless that wasn't me in the picture._ It's not like my hair was dyed or anything 'cause then I would've seen the roots by now. Now that I think about it, mom was always dying her hair. Maybe that's the reason why I have blue hair. _'That doesn't exactly explain the blonde baby hair. Hair doesn't just go from platinum blonde to powdery blue in like, two years!'_

I was brought out of my musings when I heard the doorknob move a bit. I froze for a second and laid back in the bed; drawing the covers up like they had been and layed on my side. A couple of seconds later, the door opened and Nel walked out. She walked quietly and slipped into the covers; lying on the far side from me. The smell of salt reached my nose.

_Wait, what the fuck? I knew that I had sharp sense but damn! Not that sharp to the point where I could smell tears!_

I blinked a couple of times and waited to hear the slow breathing. Not soon after, I turned on my other side and saw that she was asleep. I know this sounds creepy but, for the rest of the night I watched her sleep. Sometimes she would whimper or twitch and then fall still. _'Maybe she's having a bad dream?'_ At one point I decided to wake her up, but stopped. She needed the rest more than escaping her nightmares. I watched for a while longer before falling into a deep sleep.

* * *

The sound of the front door busting open along with gunshots going off, startled me awake.

I quickly untangled myself from Nel, who was also startled and had a slight blush on her face; she was also getting up with me. I grabbed the gun that was on the nightstand and was rushing towards the bedroom door, when Nel stopped me.

"Grimmjow! Are you stupid? Put some clothes on! And follow my lead!" She hissed at me in a not-so-quiet voice. I looked down at myself and saw that I was _indeed_ only wearing boxers.

"Sorry 'bout that." I murmured and grabbed my black clothes and protested when she took the gun away from me. There were more gunshots and the sound of a girl screaming and crying reached our ears.

_Oh shit!_

Before I could even zip on the stupid tight jeans, Nel rushed out of the room leaving me.

"What the fuck Nel!?" I yelled out to her but was drowned out by the sound of gunshots as they intensified. I was in the middle of looking for my combat boots, when I somehow, through the sound of gunshots, heard hurried footsteps heading towards the room.

_'Fuck the boots Grimm, get your sword ya idiot!'_ I ran towards the bed and reached underneath for my sword. I stopped when I heard the door slam open and a girl scream. I looked up and saw a girl, who was probably nine years old and had a slight green tint to her somewhat blonde hair. She screamed and pointed at me.

"Who the _hell_ are _you_!?" I raised an eyebrow at her choice of words.

"I could be asking you the same thing kid!" Her mouth opened and her eyes narrowed.

"Who are _you_ calling a kid?_ Old man_!" I felt my eye twitch at this.

_'Old man!?'_

I stood up and walked towards her angrily.

"Listen brat! For your information, I'm _not_ an old man! I'm probably seven years older than you!" She stepped away from her spot at the door and walked towards me with her hands on her hips, ready to say some kind of nine year-old insult. Alas, she was interrupted by the gunshots that got louder; meaning that whoever followed this kid here, was getting closer.

"Shit, listen kid, get under the bed or something. It's not safe for you here." She scoffed at me and my eyes nearly bulged out when she took out a handgun.

"Pft, for _your_ information, I can defend myself." I rolled my eyes at that.

"Stupid, if you could defend _yourself_, why the hell didn't you kill these guys already?" She narrowed her eyes and pouted.

"'Cause stupid Nnoitra didn't let me." My eyebrows raised at that name. _Nnoitra's here? As in the spoon/ bug looking friend that I went to high school with?_ I grew serious and grabbed the gun from the girl.

"Well then, you better listen to me and get under the bed until it's safe."

"You're an idiot! Nothing in this country is safe anymore stupid! Let go of me!" She yelled at me as I picked her up and dragged her towards the small space between the bed and the wall. As I dumped her on the floor, her hand swiped out and scratched my arm.

"Ow! What the fuck!?" I looked at my arm and saw that the brat managed to draw blood. She sat cross-legged on the floor with a pissed off expression.

"When my daddy finds out that you dropped his little girl and took her gun, he's gonna put a bullet in your ass." She smiled with malice at me. I smirked back at her.

"Yeah well, that's too bad 'cause your daddy ain't here, _kid_." I sneered at her and made my way towards the door to go and help out. As I closed the door, I managed to hear the kid scream out in rage. I chuckled and made my way quietly towards the staircase.

The living room below was a total war zone. A table and a couch had been tipped over on their sides and I saw three White Cloaks on one side and Nel along with a gangly figure that I recognized, on the other side. The couch was tattered and the cushions exploded as bullets tore across them. I got on my stomach and aimed at one of them, shooting their brains out.

"Headshot." I smirked and took aim at the one closest to the edge. They had taken notice of me and aimed. Before they could even pull the trigger, two shots rang out; mine and Nnoitra's. The soldiers collapsed in their own blood and the whole house grew silent. I got up and grinned down at Nnoitra.

"Hey! Long time no see Nnoitra!" He got up and waved at me.

"It's been what, about five months maybe? Grimmjow." He shouted towards me. I laughed and looked over at Nel, who nodded up towards me.

"It's about time you showed up Grimmy!"

"Yeah well,-" I was interrupted when the sound of the door slamming open and a very pissed of nine year-old stomped out, yelling at me.

"I soo can't wait until I tell my dad what you did so that he can put a bullet in you!" I looked down at Nnoitra and Nel, who had an apologetic smile on her face.

"I take it you two met each other already?" I shook my head frantically at Nel, trying to tell her to shut up, but the girl saw me and frowned at Nel.

"You know this jerk face, Aunty Nel?"

"_Aunty __Nel!?_"

* * *

After rummaging through the cupboards once again, Nel managed to find a canister of coffee. With the help of Nnoitra, we managed to make a small fire to warm a pot of water to make coffee. We all sat at the table and I unfortunately had to sit next to the brat. Nel noticed my somber expression and laughed at me.

"Come on Grimmjow, it's not _that_ bad." My eyebrows arched at this and Nnoitra laughed across from me.

"It's probably 'cause Grimmy here has never met someone as feisty as Lilinette, other than himself." I frowned at him.

"Oh, shut the hell up Nnoitra." I stopped as I realized something.

"Lilinette? What the hell kind of name is that?" I heard _her_ scoff at me.

"I can say the same thing about you _sharkface_, who the hell names their son that?" I gripped the edge of the table as the others laughed.

"Pfft, whatever kid." Nel smiled at me as she got up to serve us all some coffee. I looked over at Nnoitra, who saw the whole transaction between us and looked like he was gonna say something about it, but I beat him to it.

"So Nnoitra, might wanna tell us how you and buster over here found this place? Shouldn't you be at the backup base?" Nnoitra frowned for a moment and looked over at Lilynette, who also looked at him curiously.

"I'd rather we talk about this _alone_." Nel looked at him, understanding what he meant and gently grabbed Lilinette's hand.

"Come on, let's check out what they have upstairs."

"But-"

"Come on Lilinette." She pulled a bit harder and had the kid following behind her up the stairs. Nnoitra waited until he heard the door slam shut and turned towards me with a serious expression.

"I went back and searched for any survivors at the base."

"And?" Nnoitra shook his head.

"Nothing, not even a single survivor." I looked at him with a questioning look.

"So how did you find the kid?"

"Here's the thing, when Starrk started telling the medical staff and civilians to evacuate, Lilynette was in there at the time so she ended up getting grouped with us. Starrk didn't see her though, that's why she was one of the first to leave."

"So what is Lilinette to Starrk and Nel?"

"Starrk's her dad and Nel's her aunt." I almost choked on my coffee.

"You're kidding? The kid hardly resembles Starrk, save for the pale eyes but other than that, they are hardly alike!" Nnoitra snorted at that.

"She's got her dad's brains, but she takes after her mother in every way."

"Is her mother alive at least?" Nnoitra shook his head.

"She died when Lilinette was months old, so she doesn't have any memory of her, except for the gold cross necklace that she wears." I sat there for a moment, somewhat feeling guilty. Then I remembered something.

"But I thought that Nel was all Starrk had blood-wise, or at least that's what he said that day." Nnoitra chuckled and shook his head, sighing.

"Even the best of them forget about their only child during a time like that." We sat there in silence for a moment.

"How exactly did the medical staff evacuate?" Nnoitra chuckled.

"And yet you still haven't changed." I frowned at him.

"Yeah whatever, just tell me."

"The majority of them were evacuated in military trucks and this might sound very old fashioned but, we also escaped in horse pulled wagons." My eyebrows arched in surprise.

"You mean like the kind they used during the gold rush? Like in _pilgrimages_?"

"Yup, the very same ones."

"Why?" He laughed at me.

"'Cause if we ever ran out of gas, we can always count on the horses. Wagons to carry some of the equipment and belongings of the people."

"Honestly, that's actually pretty smart."

"Yeah well, credits go to the first guy that was in charge." I laughed with him for a moment, before getting serious once again.

"Does Lilinette know about-?" I asked him.

"She does but, she doesn't want to accept it. When I ran back to the old base, I thought I was alone. Turns out the kid managed to catch up with me. Almost gave me a damn heart attack, creeping up on me like that." I reclined against the chair and crossed my arms over my head.

"So how'd you know we were here?" He smirked and pulled out a tracker.

"We tracked down Nel's tracker."

"That's cool." Before the conversation spiraled down, someone let out a shrill scream upstairs. Nnoitra jumped up and ran up the stairs towards the bedroom that Nel and I had slept in. I slowly got up and made my way towards the patio doors that led to a scuzzy pool that I somehow missed last night. I stopped when I saw the bodies of the guys that we shot down. There must've been a total of six guys, including the ones that I shot. I sighed and rolled up my sleeves and started dragging the bodies one by one towards the pool; dumping them in.

"Never thought I would see you trying to hide bodies like that."

"Yeah well, I didn't really feel like getting sweaty and dig holes for these guys." Nel laughed at that and kept watching.

"So who screamed?" I asked as I continued to throw in the bodies.

"Lilinette." I paused and looked at Nel, who shrugged her shoulders.

"Those boots are killing her feet and now Nnoitra has to clean them up." She said laughing and I couldn't help but join in at the image of the lanky bastard wrapping feet up.

"So how do you know Nnoitra?" She asked when I continued to dump the last body.

"We went to the same high school and played baseball together." I turned to look at her as I remembered my discovery from last night.

"Guess what I found last night?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"What?"

"Well, I was poking around the house and found a garage."

"And?"

"And I found something called an SUV that's gassed up and ready to go.."

"Honest? Did you test drive it and everything?"

"Hell yeah, I started it and it purred like a kitten." Her eyes widened and she started to back away.

"And it's in the garage?" I smiled and nodded at her.

"It's in the gar-" Before I could finish, she rushed out in the direction of the garage and I went after her. I couldn't help but chuckle as she picked her away into the garage and peered into the SUV.

"It's awesome ain't it?"

"No.. This is more than awesome. It's...I don't even know what to say." She sounded so happy.

"When do we leave?"

"As soon as possible I guess."

"If you told me about this, I probably wouldn't have slept." I watched as she started making her way towards the house.

"You're not kidding."

"I'm not." She said happily and started going upstairs towards the bedroom. We went in and I started laughing my ass off at the sight that met our eyes.

Nnoitra was in the middle of trying to get Lilinette to hand him over her combat boots hence, she proceeded to hit him over the head with a large pillow each time he got close to her. Nnoitra heard me laughing at him and scowled at us.

"Don't just fuckin' laugh at me! Help me ya idiot!" He yelled at me.

"Nah, looks like you got this all under control Nnoi!" I said to him and he flipped me the bird. Nel laughed and walked over to Lilinette.

"Aunty Nel! Nnoitra wants me to throw away my boots!" She whined and I laughed one more time before making my way towards the large closet. Nnoitra watched me curiously as I pulled out a bunch of suitcases and a backpack that use to belong to the former inhabitants. He walked over to me as I began to stuff whatever I could in them; stuff for the four of us and to speed up the process.

"What the hell are ya doin'?" I grinned up at him.

"Packing our shit so that we can leave." He frowned at me.

"You won't be able to carry all of _that_ on foot."

"Exactly, that's why I'm packing whatever I can." He looked at me as if I were stupid.

"I found an SUV in the garage last night. That's why I'm packing your shit so that we can leave as soon as possible." Nnoitra grinned, revealing his piano looking teeth.

"Shit if that's true, lemme help ya load that SUV up then."

"I call shotgun!" I heard Nel yell out from the bathroom and Nnoitra scowled, saying something about how that wasn't fair.

As Nnoitra and I were loading up the SUV, he lowered his voice a bit.

"So what's up with you and Nel?" He asked curiously. I paused for a moment and continued stacking luggage.

"I don't know, friends I guess?" Nnoitra snorted loudly at this.

"Ain't that some bull. You don't have to lie to me Grimm. I've seen the way you two look at each other."

"Think whatever you want, but I'm just sayin' what I know." I said to him and he just laughed.

"Whatever bro. I still can't believe you chose her over me to drive the next leg, not to mention that you're letting her sit shotgun!"

* * *

Later, we were all ready to leave and in the end, Lilinette got to keep her combat boots.

"How 'bout you play some music Grimm?" Nnoitra said from the back and I frowned.

"Uh no. I'm driving ya know? Can't take my eyes away from the road." Nnoitra scoffed and pointed at the road.

"What the hell could you _possibly_ run over or crash with? The roads are deserted bro!" Nel rolled her eyes and fiddled with the radio.

"There aren't any radio stations _smart one_!" She said to him and Lilinette perked up.

"Check the CD player Aunty!" Nel fumbled with some buttons until she pressed something and '_All We Have_' by Machine Gun Kelly blared out from the speakers. We exchanged a look at how unexpected it had been. Nnoitra smirked at me.

"Hey Grimm! Weren't you at one point obsessed with _MGK_?" He yelled over the music and I felt my face get hot.

"Shut the fuck up Nnoitra!" I snapped at him and continued driving. Seconds later, Lilinette spoke up.

"Who's MGK?" Nel frowned for a second and I rolled my eyes at what she said.

"Someone who you should probably not be listening to at your age." I turned to look at Nel and I heard Nnoitra snicker in the back.

"Nel please, I've been listening to Machine Gun Kelly since as far as I can remember. He's not bad ya know."

"I didn't say that he was bad, now did I?"

"No, but you made it sound that way.." I trailed off as I heard Nnoitra say something to Lilinette.

"...And that's why you shouldn't say anything that'll offend Grimm-kitty." At the same time, Nel and I turned to look back at him.

"Shut the hell up Nnoitra!" He cackled at us and we continued to drive past dry fields and sad looking houses. I kept speeding along until the sun almost set. I almost decided to drive past a gas station, but decided against it. Who knew how long it would be until we found another gas station. We all got out and I started to fill the SUV up, while Nel and Nnoitra went inside to find whatever food they could. Lilinette stood next to me and from my peripheral, I could tell that she was staring at my hair.

"Is your hair naturally blue?"

"Mhm." She pouted when I didn't say much and placed her hands on her hips. She moved so that she was standing in front of me.

"Why are you so mean _sharkface_? Is it because of what Nnoi said back there?"

"Nah." She frowned at me.

"Then why are you so grumpy?"

"I'm not kiddo, and if ya keep askin' that, then I actually _will_ be pissed off." She was about to say something when thankfully, Nel stepped in.

"Let's leave Grimmy alone for a moment, Lilinette. He's being a meany right now." Lilinette stuck out her tongue at me and went back into the SUV. Nel turned around and mouthed a '_Sorry_' while I mouthed a '_Thank you_' at her. I stopped her before she got in.

"Hey, if it's okay with you, can you drive?"

"Sure." As she made her way towards the driver's side, a hand patted my shoulder.

"Doesn't seem like a "_just friends_" relationship to me."

"Whatever."

"I call shotgun." He smirked and I waved him off and got in the back. I was able to somewhat stretch my legs in the back, ignoring Lilinette's yapping and went to sleep.

_But sleep didn't last long_.

I woke up and noticed that we had stopped and Nel and Nnoitra were freaking out about something outside. I rubbed my eyes and sat up to look out the front window. I snapped wide awake at what I saw.

"What the hell!? Is that a _tiger_!?"


	12. Well Then

**I do Not own Bleach, Tite Kubo does.**

**Two chapters done in one day! Man I'm on a roll!**

**To get an idea as to how the house looks like, look up the house where Courage the Cowardly Dog lives:3**

**Anyways...**

**Onwards!**

* * *

"What the hell!? We're somewhere in the west of the U.S, not in the jungle! Where the hell did that tiger come from!?" This was so confusing and for a moment I though maybe, just maybe I'm still asleep. When Lilinette woke up and pushed me aside, causing me to slam into the door. It was then I thought, _nope, I really am awake._

I watched in awe as we drove around the tiger and I half expected it to attack us or somethin'. We drove a little bit down a long dirt road and as shocking as the group of tigers wandering around, there was a two-story brown house with all of its windows lit up. They had electricity, which meant running water.

"What do you guys think?" Nel asked and I saw Nnoitra shrug.

"Might as well see what they've got." Nel parked the SUV in front of the porch. It all seemed, _wrong_. Here was a ranch-styled home in the middle of nowhere, with electricity and tigers lounging on the porch. Shadows moved around and peered through the curtains aware that we were here.

"Maybe we should go, th-"

"Look! Someone's coming out!" Lilinette pointed at the front of the house. We all turned and saw a man walk out. The porch light bathed the ground in yellow light and we could make out what he looked like. Tall and muscular, with brown eyes and brown hair. I saw Nel stiffen for a moment and through the rear view mirror, I saw Nnoitra's eye widen.

"Yo, is it just me, or does that guy look a bit like Aizen?" I saw Nel nod in agreement. My heart began to beat quickly and I remembered the dream I had last night.

"But, it's not Aizen." I heard Lilinette whisper next to me. We watched as he walked out with ease, like he was use to walking amongst tigers. He waved his hand and the tigers that had been circling the SUV, backed off. He waved at us and smiled.

"I think we should get the hell out of here." I said and I saw Nel nod her head slowly.

"No way! Are you insane? They have electricity and maybe even running water and food! We can't just leave without talking to them!?" I gaped at Lilinette when she said that and Nnoitra as he nodded in agreement. He saw my expression through the mirror.

"She's got a point. Hell, there might even be some soldiers here." I looked at Nel and groaned as she turned off the car and opened her door.

"Why doesn't anyone ever listen to me?" I muttered and got out as well. The man walked towards Nel and his smile widened. Nnoitra walked around to stand next to her. I frowned and grabbed Lilinette's arm when she hurried around to meet him. Nel and Nnoitra moved so that they somewhat shielded her from him.

"For a minute there, I wasn't sure if you were coming out or not," The guy laughed and before I could say anything, Nnoitra cut me off.

"Yeah well, we weren't sure if it was safe to come out, with the tigers and all." He said lightly and smiled.

_What._

_The._

_Fuck._

_Since when did Nnoitra have fuckin' manners!?_

"They're harmless unless they sense that you have bad motives." He said, laughing again and extended his hand to Nnoitra.

"My name is Carl and this is my home."

"I'm Nnoitra." Nnoitra shook his hand in return.

"Nel." I watched as he grasped her hand and a look of discomfort crossed over her features. He then reached past her to shake my hand. I looked at it for a moment before taking it. To everyone else, it may have seemed like a regular handshake but, I knew something was up when he gripped my hand a little too tightly. Lilinette introduced herself by saying her first and last name, and Carl smiled at her a second too long for what I thought was okay.

"Why don't you all come inside? I'm sure everyone else is eager to meet you all." He began walking towards the house and I suddenly felt the hair on the back of my neck stand. Somethin' just ain't right with this place. I watched as Lilinette skipped alongside of Carl, with Nnoitra walking next to her.

"Hey," Nel nudged me and I saw that she also wasn't buying it, "We'll stay here for the night and then we'll leave." I gave her a half smile.

"Alright then." We walked behind them and went in.

* * *

I blinked as we walked in. The place was mostly empty, save for the pillows and couches in the living room. There was a large cross on the wall and a small table with an open book on it, in the middle of the room. He then led us to the kitchen where a thin woman with blonde hair, was washing the dishes.

"This is Norah, she is as close to a saint as a woman can be." Norah clasped her hands together when she saw us and I suddenly felt Nel's shoulder against my arm. She was just as freaked out by this as much as I was and forced a tight smile on my face. None of us really said much, other than a quick hello.

"Oh I am so happy to see that there are more people out in the world! We've all prayed in hopes of finding wanderers to help them and now, He has brought you all to us." I tried my best not to look freaked out by all this, but I guess I must've had _that_ expression 'cause Carl looked at me in a very displeased way.

_Well fuck you too then, not my fault that my face looks that way._

I heard Nnoitra say a '_thank you_' to Norah, when Carl spoke up.

"Norah, they just got here and it's past bedtime, why don't we see if they need anything?" He said as if it was okay to let in a group of strange looking people into his house. My eyes suddenly widened and I froze. Nel probably felt me stiffen and turned to look at me with a questioning look. My eyes flickered over to Norah and then to Carl, nervously.

_'Do they know about what Aizen and his organization and what he wants?'_

_'Well no shit, dumbass! Of course they know!'_

_'Or do they?'_

I bit the inside of my cheek and shifted awkwardly. Norah saw and walked hurriedly towards me.

"Oh dear! Are you sick?" Before I could say anything, she pressed the back of her hand against my now, sweaty forehead.

"Hmmm, you're quite warm, how 'bout some medicine?" I shook my head a bit too quickly I guess, 'cause everyone looked at me weirdly. Nel frowned at me, but not in a bad way.

"Are you sure you're okay? You don't look good."

"Yeah dude, you're turning a bit pale."

"I'm fine you guys, nothin' to worry about." I said a bit forcefully. Norah looked over at Carl with an unsure expression and he just shrugged. She looked back to us and clasped her hands again.

"Okay then, do any of you need anything to eat or drink? We have running water and beds."

"You have running water?" Lilinette looked at her in awe.

"Yes, we are very blessed to have water." Norah smiled at Lilinette.

"I would like to take a shower." Norah nodded and then turned to look back at us.

"Would any of you like to take a shower?" We all nodded in agreement and Norah beamed at us.

"Let's introduce them to the rest of the family and then they can get settled." Carl suddenly said next to me and I moved a bit closer to Nel. Everyone nodded and then Carl began his 'tour' of his house. Everything seemed alright, until we reached the basement.

That shit, instantly freaked me out.

The basement was divided into two large rooms. In one, there was a shower room and reminded me of a prison movie I saw once. There were five shower heads and no privacy. There wasn't a door to separate the others from looking.

_Awkward_

In the other room, there were a bunch of mattresses scattered on the floor. Along with them were a bunch of girls, that stared at us with wide eyes. I shifted awkwardly and accidentally leaned on Nel as Carl introduced them to us.

"_Sorry_" I mouthed to her and she gave me a worried smile, which I returned as well. My mouth had turned in a thin line as I looked back to the others. Nnoitra had a surprisingly calm expression and Lilinette looked happy. Something's not right here and as far as we knew, Carl was the only guy here.

"And this is where we keep our food." I absently turned to look where Norah pointed at.

"This is pretty new. Did you guys build this after the... soldiers attacked?" Nnoitra suddenly spoke up and Norah smiled widely at him.

"No, this was built years ago and we've been living here since before the End Of Times descended."

"S-so, you've lived here for years?" I slightly winced at how nervous I sounded and Carl turned to look at me.

_Oh shit._

"The Lord called upon me to build this and I did. He has now let me help you." He said as he gestured around the room.

"W-well, we appreciate it." Nnoitra said with wide eyes.

"The sinful world out there is exhausting and I'm sure that you're all tired." Norah said as she stood next to Carl.

"Uh..well." Nel said awkwardly.

"I'd like to take a shower." Lilinette said unfazed. Carl's smile widened.

"Of course, make yourselves at home." He then turned to look at me and Nnoitra. I accidentally bumped into Nel as I shifted under his gaze.

"You two can shower in the bathroom upstairs and sleep in the _men's_ bedroom next to mine." I blinked and somewhat felt relieved that he wasn't going to kill us.

"Thanks." Nnoitra said and we moved so that Carl could lead the way. I looked back at Nel worriedly and she gave me a reassuring smile that didn't reach her eyes.

* * *

We followed Carl up the stairs to the bedroom and he held the door open for us. I felt my skin prickle when I saw exactly five mattresses and one kid. He also stared at us like the girls in the basement had and he looked as old as Lilinette. I looked at Nnoitra, who also seemed weirded out by this.

"You two can sleep over there and shower over _there_."

I looked over to where he pointed and saw that the bathroom looked _exactly_ like the one in the basement._ Which meant no privacy here either._

'_Great_!' I thought rolling my eyes and Nnoitra blinked several times before asking.

"How come there is no privacy in the bathrooms? I noticed that with the bathroom downstairs." Carl laughed and I inwardly groaned, already knowing what he was gonna say.

"In this house there is no reason to be ashamed of our bodies hence, we shower freely with the others. We also encourage the women to dress up their bodies under their humble clothing." Okay, this was so _not_ what I expected him to say and who's _we_? I'm sure as hell, that nine year-old hasn't even had the '_birds and the bees_' talk yet. I looked over at Nnoitra and saw his face falter a bit.

"Okay, I kind of understand." Carl laughed and patted Nnoitra's back.

"You're a humble guy. You will fit perfectly here." He said and made his way towards the door.

"Enjoy your shower!" He said as he shut the door and left. We stood there awkwardly and I pretended not to care that he didn't say anything about me fitting in.

"Well, I'm gonna take a shower now. You comin' with?" Nnoitra said and I shook my head.

"Nah go ahead I'll wait 'till you're done and then I'll go." Nnoitra shrugged at me.

"Suit yerself." He went in and I plopped down onto the farthest mattress. I stared at my feet and avoided the pair of eyes that stared at me. I quickly grew annoyed at this and tried my best not snap at him. If I did, he'd probably start crying, getting Carl's attention, and get me killed. Or, he'll snitch on me and then get me killed. It was obvious that Carl didn't like me and that he was a pedophile. I couldn't help but notice the way he stared at the younger kids in the basement and in here. But then again I could be wrong. While I was thinking, I didn't notice the nine year-old get up and make his way towards me. Nor did I notice him sitting right next to me, like practically sitting on me. Until I felt something breathing on me. I jolted back and felt tiny hands grab my hair.

"Hey kid! What the he- what are you doing?" I corrected myself and tried to get the squealing nine year-old off of me.

"You look like one of the big kitties outside!" He said gleefully and kept petting my hair.

'_What the hell?_'

"Listen kid! I'm not a cat nor resemble one! Got it?" I said and managed to pry him off. He stared at me with big brown eyes and just, sat there. It was a bit creepy being stared at by a little kid and at close range no less. That's when I realized that the kid was gonna cry. My eyes widened and I tried thinking about something to make him not cry.

"So you think I look like a tiger?" He perked up instantly and shook his head.

"No not a tiger. You look like the black panther that usually follows me when I go outside to feed the kitties." He said cheerfully. I literally felt my eye twitch when he said that.

"Hold on, so you're telling me that Carl sends you out to feed tigers and a panther?" I said in a hushed voice. For all I knew, that bastard might even be listening to us from his room. He nodded his head.

"Yup, but I like it and the kitties like to sometimes bite me." I nodded and looked at his hands. Instead of seeing bite marks, I saw chaffed wrists.

"Yo, what happened to your wrists kiddo!?" I asked as I somewhat yanked them up to look at them. They were red and looked raw, shit almost painful looking. I looked at him and he answered as if it was no big deal.

"That usually happens after Carl and I finish playing." He said and I that's all I needed to know that my suspicions were right. The bastard was a fuckin' pedophile. I cleared my throat and picked my words carefully.

"Uh.. How often does he _play_ with you?" The kid sat there for a moment, pondering.

"About once every week." _That's disgusting. How can that bastard do something like that to an innocent child!?_

"Mister? Why are you angry?" He asked and I looked down at him.

"'Cause that ain't right. By the way what's your name kid?" He looked at me confused for a second before answering.

"Aiden."

"Kay, listen up Aiden, and I don't want you telling anybody and I mean anybody 'cause this is gonna be our little _secret_. Can you keep a secret?" I said in a quiet voice. He nodded quickly and for a second I wondered if I would end up regretting this later on. _I hope not._

"What's the secret, Mister!?"

"Kay first of all, don't call me '_Mister_', it makes me sound old. Call me Grimmjow."

"Why do I have to call you _that_?"

"'Cause that's my name."

"Really!?"

"Yeah. Do you want to know the secret or not?"

"Yeah!" I winced at how loud he was talking and I looked towards the bathroom to make sure that Nnoitra hadn't heard.

"Look Aiden, if you want to keep a secret, you gotta be really quiet. Kay?" He nodded his head again.

"Alright, tomorrow when my friends and I are gonna leave, I'm gonna help you get outta here." He looked at me confused.

"Why would I wanna leave?" I almost smacked my hand to my face.

"Look, whatever Carl's doin' to you and everyone else here ain't right."

"But Carl said-"

"I don't give a fuck what Carl said. He's a fraud, a fake. A grown ass man shouldn't touch a little kid like that." He frowned at me.

"You shouldn't say bad words and you also touched me."

"First, I'm older than you so it's okay for me to cuss. Second, I only grabbed your hands. Not any other body part that shouldn't be touched." He sat there for a moment looking at the floor.

"I guess you're right..I'll go with you guys." For a nine year-old, he acted like a four year-old. Damn he acts like Nel when she gets all _childish_. Oh but say something offensive or get in a serious situation and you're talking to an adult. Speaking of Nel, I wonder if her and Lilynette are okay.

Suddenly, the bedroom door opened and Carl walked in. I felt Aiden grab my sleeve as Carl stared at us meticulously.

"You haven't showered yet?" He asked me in a surprised voice. I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm waiting for my friend to finish so that I can go in nex-"

"Hey Grimmjow! Can you pass me my clothes!" I heard Nnoitra yell out. I watched as Carl sat down on the mattress across from me. As I was getting up, Aiden tugged on my sleeve again and this time, Carl saw.

"What is wrong my child?" He asked him and I felt like socking him in the face. Aiden immediately let go of my sleeve and Carl watched as I grabbed Nnoitra's clothes and mine. I felt his eyes boring a hole into my back as I walked into the shower room. Nnoitra saw my face and took the clothes from me.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" He said and I made to tell him to shut up and looked at me in confusion. I pointed out the door and he surprisingly understood.

"Hey Nnoi, how do you turn this thing on!?" I said loudly and Nnoitra frowned before catching on.

"Oh! Hold on! Lemme show ya!" He said and turned on the shower. It was pretty loud, enough to mask what we were talking about.

"What the fuck is going on Grimmjow?" He hissed.

"_What is going on!? What is going on?!_ What is going on, is that _pedophile_ in the next room!" I hissed at him angrily. I looked towards the door before saying,

"NNOITRA THE WATER'S TOO HOT'! YA DUMMY I GOT BURNT!" I practically screamed out to make it sound real.

"WHOOPS! SORRY BRO! LEMME FIX THAT FOR YA!" He looked at me,

"Pedophile? Grimm, what are you talking about?" He hissed again and I shook my head at him.

"Just go in there and make sure that kid is okay, check his wrists out and question him. _Then_ you'll know what I'm talking about."

"THANKS MAN! IF YOU DON'T MIND CAN YOU GET OUT NOW!?"

"YEAH SURE BRO!" And with that, Nnoitra left me in shower room. Alone.

* * *

When I got out, I was beyond surprised when I saw that Carl was still there. Instead of frowning like he probably expected me to do, I gave him a tight smile. I looked at Nnoitra, who was sitting on the mattress that was by Aiden's. _On the other side of the room._

"I have decided instead to sleep here tonight."

_Shit!_

"Okay then." I replied casually and did my bed.

"Did you enjoy your shower Grimmjow?" I stiffened a bit and layed on my bed.

"Yeah, better than the bath I took last night." And it was true; there was electricity and the shower head worked. I tried not look awkward as he continued to stare at me. I inwardly sighed in relief when he stood up to turn off the lights.

"Well it's way past bedtime, so we shall sleep now." He turned off the lights and I turned to stare at the wall. I vaguely heard the mattress next to me shift, as Carl layed down.

_I refuse to go to sleep._


	13. Nothing Anymore

**Sorry that I haven't uploaded in the past weeks. I'm even more sorry that I haven't updated and haven't been able to get out of this writer's block on my other story. But! I will eventually post a new chapter for 'Tomorrow's Wasteland'!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach. At all.**

**So... Enjoy!**

* * *

And I am aware now of how

everything's gonna be fine one day

Too late, I'm in hell

I am prepared now,

seems everyone's gonna be fine

One day too late, just as well~ Seether: _Fine Again_

* * *

_Shit! Fuck! Shit! Fuck! I fell asleep! Sonovabitch!_

I scrambled up as I woke up to sun rays burning my naked back.

_Wait!? Naked back!? Where the fuck is my sweater!?_

I got up and started to frantically search for my sweater that I had on last night. I checked almost everywhere and I was about to go downstairs to kill someone, when my foot got caught on fabric.

_Oh, there you are._

I slipped on the black sweater and cautiously made my way down the stairs. With every fucked-up thing that's happened up 'till this point, I couldn't risk getting caught off guard. As I made my way downstairs, I heard cheerful voices coming from the kitchen. I went into the kitchen and was met by a bunch of wide-eyed stares. I was a bit taken back by all the girls that were wearing ill-fitted garments that looked like garbage bags.

"Uh-"

"Sharkface!" I looked over and was beyond shocked when I saw Lilinette skipping towards me. What actually shocked me more was that she had put her hair into pigtails and was dressed in a pale yellow dress that looked _exactly_ like what all the other girls were wearing. She stood in front of me and grabbed my arm.

"Hey! What are you-" she dragged me towards a kitchen counter and pointed at a bowl with flour in it. I looked at it and then back at her. She noticed my confusion and smiled. She practically _thrived_ in this type of environment.

"I'm learning how to make bread!"

"Um, good for you?"

"Here! Try some!" Before I could say no, she reached up and shoved a piece of bread into my mouth.

"Mmmmfff!" I tried not to choke and tried my best not to spit it out. It tasted flat and sour, hell I didn't even wanna know what they used to make this. I gulped it down without even tasting it and tried to mask my reaction. Lilinette looked up at me smiling and had her hands clasped to her chest. _Great, she's also starting to do that too._

"So? How does it taste? Is it good? Does it need anything?" She bombarded me with so many questions and I pulled on a fake smile.

"Actually it's really, really good!" I lied and patted her head and started to move past her to go look for Nnoitra and Nel.

"Wait! Don't you want to eat more!?" She asked.

"I would but, I'm not really hungry right now." I said and suddenly, I felt the back of my neck prickle.

_Someone's watching me_

I scanned my eyes around the kitchen and only saw the girls moving about and cooking. I almost jumped when a girl with long black hair approached me from behind.

"Hi! I'm Melinda, but you can just call me Mel!" She said in a surprisingly annoying voice. She held out her hand and I made the mistake of shaking it.

"I think I've seen you in a flyer somewhere before." She said and I started to internally freak out as she stared at me studiously.

"Hmmm I'm not famous or anything like that, so maybe you're mistaking me for somebody else." She tilted her head to the side and put her hands on her hips.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah I'm sure. Why wouldn't I?"

"What's your name?" _This, _was starting to turn into an interrogation I soon realized.

"Look, if this has to do with the flyers, _that_ ain't me. My hair isn't natural and that guy in the picture looks waaay better than me." I flinched inwardly at how stupid that sounded.

"I guess you are _right_. This guy in the flyer is good looking, but _you're_ hotter looking." She said in an attempt to sound seductive I guess and she batted her eyelashes at me.

_This bitch is dumb!_

"Ya think?" _Fuck! What the hell are you doing Grimmjow?! Oh well, flirting never hurt anyone. Right?!_

I leaned against the wall and smirked. She giggled and twirled her hair while she yapped about something. My actions were long forgotten when I looked around the kitchen and didn't see Nel.

_Come to think about it, I haven't seen Carl either. Shit! What if Nel's in danger?_

"Hey have you seen Nel? Ya know, girl with sea green hair?" I interrupted her and she looked at me as if I had insulted and slapped her at the same time.

"Oh _her_? No I haven't seen _her_." She sneered in a tone that practically dripped with dislike.

_Okay then.._

I looked over to the living room as the screen door opened. Instead of seeing Nel, Norah walked in, followed by Nnoitra with a tool box. He saw me and immediately walked over. I reached him first, ignoring the annoying chic's protest and grabbed the collar of his shirt, dragging him back outside.

"Dude, what the-!"

"Where the hell is she?" Nnoitra looked at me in confusion.

"Who?"

"Where's Nel!?" Nnoitra backed up a bit, surprised with my tone. Hell, even I was surprised with myself.

"Grimm, are ya sure yer okay? Isn't Nel with Lilinette?" He asked and I realized that he had no idea either. I leaped down the steps and began walking towards the SUV with Nnoitra following me.

"Have you seen that bastard Carl?" I asked quietly in case someone was eavesdropping or something.

"No, he was already gone when I woke up and he wasn't downstairs in the kitchen." I bit my lip as terrible thoughts ran through my head. I leaned against the side and Nnoitra noticed.

"We can't trust anyone in that house."

"I figured that much." I looked around at the barren landscape and saw the occasional tiger here and there. I looked over at Nnoitra and then towards the house.

"We're going to escape tonight."

"_Escape_? As far as I know we're allowed to leave whenever we want."

"We can, but I have a feeling that they're gonna try and convince Nel and Lilinette into staying with them." Nnoitra pondered at this and nodded his head in agreement.

"Guess yer right about that Grimm. Carl doesn't like you. _At all._" I rolled my eyes at him.

"Well no shit Nnoitra, I'm pretty sure everyone noticed that. It doesn't bother me." Nnoitra frowned down at me.

"Look, I know that ain't what's bothering ya." He then chuckled.

"I know what you're planning to do." I looked at him with wide eyes and he smirked.

"What are you talking about?"

"You and that kid weren't exactly talking quietly." I stared at the reddish ground; refusing to look him in the eye.

"It's okay man. I understand why you would want to take him with you. Hell, I would've done the same thing too." He patted my shoulder with a heavy hand.

"Let's go in and see if Nel's around." Before he could take a step back I nudged his arm.

"Hey, don't call me by my real name whenever one of _them_ is near by." I said in a hushed tone and Nnoitra frowned.

"So what the hell am I supposed to call ya?"

"I don't know, just don't call me by my real name when we go in."

"Why the hell are ya suddenly so paranoid about yer name?"

"One of them questioned me about the flyers." Nnoitra raised an eyebrow at this.

"Well the sooner we leave, the greater the chance ya got of escaping before they contact Aizen." I looked at him.

"Ya think Carl is related to Aizen in some way?"

"Maybe. I mean, they both look so much alike." I looked towards the door and faintly made out a figure through the screen door.

_Norah was watching_

Nnoitra followed my line of sight and slightly stiffened beside me.

"Come on. Let's go in and hope that she didn't hear anything." I whispered at him and he nodded. We went in and I couldn't help but feel nervous. There was a suffocating feeling in that house. Norah smiled at Nnoitra as he walked by her and as I passed by her, she stared at me with cold, knowing eyes. It was almost as if she was staring into my soul and knew everything that I did and went through. I suddenly broke into a cold sweat and I felt my chest flicker hotly when she walked towards me.

"Are you okay, dear?" She asked with false sweetness.

_'She knows. She knows. She knows!' _I gulped and tried waving her off.

"I'm okay, honest."

"Are you sure? You don't look too good. I could always call a doctor from a White Cloaks base that's nearby?" She asked and I stiffened.

"N-no I'm fine. Thanks anyways."

_Holy fucking shit! These people are associated with The White Cloaks! We have to get the hell out of here as soon as possible. Thankfully we listened to Nel and left our cloaks in the car. If we hadn't, we would've been attacked and I would've been taken to Aizen._

I suddenly spotted Nel leaned against a kitchen counter, aimlessly chewing on some sour bread. Norah noticed who I was looking at and she placed a hand on my arm, making me tense.

"It's okay dear. Go ahead and say good morning to her." I nodded slightly and tried not to make myself look desperate in trying to get away from Norah. I slightly rushed towards her and she looked up at me in surprise.

"Hey! Did you sleep well?" I asked and winced at how nervous I sounded.

"Yeah, I did. What about you?" I saw Norah walk into the room and I watched as she went about with all the other girls that were flitting about.

"Yeah." I said, not really paying attention anymore and focused more on Norah. She was now talking to a group of girls that were huddled over a stove, cooking something. My eyes quickly flickered back towards Nel when one of them looked towards me. Nel noticed and raised an eyebrow at me. I heard footsteps walking towards the dining room and another pair towards us. I stared at Nel as a girl that was twirling a rag reached us.

"Did you eat enough breakfast?" She asked who I assumed was me because Nel looked back at me.

"Yeah." I said without looking at her and slightly moved closer to Nel, who blinked in surprise.

"Alright seriously, what the hell is wrong with you Gri-!" I winced as she was about to yell out my name and before I could shut her up, Carl came out of fucking nowhere and scared the hell out of us both. My guess was, that Nel was just as jumpy as I am.

"Good morning!" He boomed from the entrance of the kitchen and was making his way towards us. The girl with the rag mumbled an excuse and walked away quickly. I stood next to Nel and I felt his gaze on me.

_Did Norah say something? Is he related to Aizen? No shit, he's definitely one of Aizen's accomplices. Damn I still have to warn the others about that too._

"Morning." I heard Nel say to him casually as she chewed on her piece of toast and he finally took his gaze off me and walked closer to us.

"I hope you slept well." He said and almost flinched when he raised his arm, thinking that he was going to slap us through a wall or somethin', instead he placed a hand on her arm.

"Actually, I was just telling my friend that I slept _fantastic_." She said and leaned back against the counter, pulling her arm away from him... only to wrap it around my waist. I saw a flash of anger cross over his face for a second at the display, and then it got replaced with a thin smile.

"That's excellent, we are going to have a worship later on and we would love it if you joined us."

_Great. Not only are they associated with Aizen, they're a cult as well. A bunch of fakes, well Carl and Norah are. As far as I can tell, the girls here probably have no idea that they're part of it and have been brainwashed into thinking that they're safe here. At least that's what I think_.

I saw Nel nod at him and looked at me.

"Yeah, we'll be there." I groaned inwardly but nodded at her anyways. Carl crossed his arms and before he could say anything more, Nel interrupted him.

"I would actually like to get some stuff from the car and check on it too." Carl frowned at this.

"Here we have clothes that you could all use. As for your car, I'm sure it's alright. Aiden fed all the cats this morning and your car was fine." He said, trying to convince Nel to stay indoors.

"I'd still like to get some of my _own_ clothes." She replied sternly and Carl merely nodded his head.

"As you wish." He said and didn't bother hiding the displeasure in his voice. We stood there for a moment and the tension grew thicker. The girls that had been cooking, were now watching us quietly. I felt Lilinette's gaze on us; mostly on Nel and Carl. He finally moved back to let her pass,

"I'll go with you." I said to her and followed. For a split second, Carl looked like he wanted to stop me, but he decided against it. In the dining room, Nnoitra was helping Norah by moving furniture around. He looked at me and gestured over at Nel. I shook my head at him and followed Nel outside. I looked back towards the house and lowered my voice,

"We should just get in the SUV and get the hell out of here." I leaned a bit closer to her, "Do you have the keys?" She blinked at me in confusion.

"Yeah-"

"Then, let's go."

"No, we're not leaving Nnoitra and Lilinette here," She continued walking towards the SUV and I followed. When we reached it, she suddenly spun around and faced me. "What the hell happened that has you flipping out?" She watched me and placed her hands on her hips.

"_Oh I don't know_," I said sarcastically, "You know how there were supposedly other men living here too? Well, there's only one and he's only nine." I said sourly and Nel frowned at me.

"And? I don't see what the problem is."

"And I wasn't done talking! Carl molests the kid and not to mention the fact that Norah and Carl are with The White Cloaks. We have to get the fuck out of here before we get caught." I said and she shook her head.

"The first place that we deemed safe, turns out to be a cult that is in alliance with our enemy." She whispered angrily. She opened the trunk and began to rummage through one of the many bags of clothes that she had packed. I stood next to her and decided to grab a change of clothes. Nel suddenly stopped for a moment and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Wait a minute. Lilinette is still in the kitchen with them and has no idea that they're White Cloaks. She could have told them anything about us!" My eyes widened with realization.

"Shit! Let's just hope that she didn't and we'll have to play it safe for now-"

"Grimmjow! This is Lilinette we're talking about! She could have said anything to anyone in the past hour!" With that, she closed the trunk loudly and began walking at a fast pace towards the house. I stood there for a moment before deciding to jog after her.

"Nel! Hold on! You gotta calm yer ass down before goin' in there!"

"I am calm!"

"No you're not!" I caught up to her and grabbed her arm.

"Nel I'm serious about this. If we start actin this way, they'll have a reason to be suspicious and contact _those guys_! So please! Calm down!" She stared at me for a moment before smiling.

"I think _you_ should calm down Grimm. You look like you're about to flip a switch any minute now." She leaned up on the tips of her toes and pecked my cheek. I stared at her for a moment, my face heating up and my left eye began to twitch erratically.

"_That_, is payback for ditching me at the motel that night." With a wink and a flip of her sea-green hair, she opened the rickety door and went in. I stood there for the millionth time and contemplated on whether or not I should just leave them all here.

_I can show up empty handed at the base in Idaho and just tell them that everyone died in an accident and that I somehow managed to survive without a scratch._

_Makes perfect sense._

I sighed and went into the house of terrors, hopefully I'll get everyone out unscathed.

_Hopefully_.

* * *

The 'worship' was a disaster.

It pretty much all started when Nel grabbed my hand as soon as I walked in and led me towards the living room. Everyone was already seated on the pillows and instantly looked up at us. Nnoitra had saved us a pillow seat next to him and Lilinette and unfortunately, next to Melinda.

_Great! Just what I needed today!_

She stared at mine and Nel's joined hands scornfully when we sat down by her. Carl was also staring at us, but he suddenly directed his anger towards someone that had walked in a minute after we did.

"Ulquiorra! How many times have I told you that it is important to be on time to the morning worship!?" I turned to look behind me and was shocked that there was another guy. He had paper white skin and pitch black hair that was up to his shoulders. His green eyes cut to mine when he noticed us and sat down next to Nnoitra. Nnoitra wasn't surprised and I realized that he had known all along and hadn't bothered telling me. Ulquiorra eyed me warily and looked towards Carl, who didn't bother with introductions. Instead, he began reading from his bible and everybody else repeated after him. I looked over at Nnoitra and saw that he and Ulquiorra had similar neutral expressions. Whatever was going on, Ulquiorra had stopped buying it a long time ago. Lilinette didn't seem to mind and was going along with whatever was being said. Nel watched her for a moment and then looked at Carl. She wasn't repeating anything either.

Suddenly, I felt someone's gaze on me and I looked to my side. Melinda kept glancing at me and tried not to make it look obvious. Eventually, Carl noticed and called her out. He made her sit in front of him and began talking about temptation and other things. The whole time, he stared at me and I felt Nel slightly grip my hand. When it was over, Carl got up and motioned for Melinda to follow him up the stairs. As soon as they left, Nel pulled me aside.

"I need you to cause a distraction for me."

"For?" She rolled her eyes towards Lilinette.

"I need to get a moment alone without Norah eavesdropping on us."

"Alright, you can count on me for that type of shit." She smiled at me and I walked towards the kitchen. Thankfully, I had a lighter with me and looked around before flipping it open and lighting the curtains on fire. Nel gaped at me and I smirked before running out and pretended to look worried. I ran over to Norah, who was in deep conversation with Lilinette.

"Norah! Norah! The curtains are on fire! I don't know what to do!" I inwardly did a little victory dance when her eyes widened and took off running towards the now blazing curtains. I followed her and Nel shook her head at me and pulled Lilinette away.

"Honey! Would you be a dear and get the fire extinguisher from the closet!?" Norah yelled towards me and I jogged slowly towards the closet in the hallway. On my way, I ran into Nnoitra and he laughed at me.

"I'm not surprised that you caused a fire, seeing as how you made one in chemistry that one time."

"Yeah well, some things never change." He laughed one more time and made his way outside. I quickly found the extinguisher and jogged towards the kitchen. The girls were all next to Norah and I handed it to her. The flames soon disappeared and the girls sighed in relief. Norah began to take out cooking utensils and said that it was time to make lunch. I watched quietly as she sent out a girl with red hair to get Nel and Lilinette.

"I know that you're planning to escape tonight." I whirled around and was met with Ulquiorra's somber green eyes.

_How the hell did I not hear him walking towards me!?_

"What the hell are you talking about?" He looked at me for a moment as if contemplating over something.

"You're going to take Aiden with you and your friends without Carl finding out."

"So what are you trying to say? That you're gonna snitch to him and get me kil-"

"I want to go along with you guys. If that's okay with you." I blinked a couple of times before cocking an eyebrow. I looked around and saw that the others were busy making dinner.

"You want to leave with _us_? Isn't it better if you stay? I mean, these people have water and running electricity. Not to mention that it's probably one of the safest spots in the country left."

"You are wrong about that."

"How so?" He looked towards Norah, who was busy peeling potatoes, and lowered his voice.

"It's not safe here with them. Everyone that you see in this house is doomed. You have no idea what happens to someone who goes against _their_ rules."

"What do you mean?" He opened his mouth as if to say something but his eyes flickered to the side and he straitened.

"Well I'm glad that you two are happily getting along." I froze and turned towards Norah. She had on a creepy smile that gave me goosebumps. Ulquiorra seemed undeterred by all this and stared back with a serious expression.

"I have something that the two of you can help me with." I slightly gulped, contemplating on whether or not I should ask.

"W-what would that be?" She smiled once more.

"Follow me."

* * *

_Oh man... I think I'm gonna get sick._

I looked down at the poor rabbits that were corralled in a fenced.

"All you got to do is pick one up, walk over to the barn and cut its head off."

Moments after I got cornered, I ended up following Norah outside to where they kept their rabbits. I don't know if it made me feel any better when she also brought along Nnoitra and Ulquiorra. They also had to pick a rabbit.

Honestly, I felt pretty bad for the little guys. Some of them were still little bunnies and what made it worse, was that they already knew that they were gonna end up being stew.

I looked over at the guys and they didn't seem to really care that they were still small. Especially Ulquiorra, he just stepped in and grasped a wriggling bunny. It squeaked loudly, something I've never heard, and tried to escape. Ulquiorra looked over at Nnoitra, who frowned for a moment and reached in. He also grabbed one that was small. I bit my lip and ran a hand through my hair. They both looked at me expectantly and Norah watched with cold eyes. I sighed and stepped over the small fence. The majority of the rabbits scurried to the other side, only leaving behind the slower ones.

_Oh well._

I reached out and grasped one. See, back when everything was fine, mom and I had chickens and other small animals at the ranch. Mom would pick out a chicken and take it towards the small barn. I remember watching the whole ordeal. Hell, mom even made me do it once...

_"Remember Grimmjow, you gotta hold its head like this. No, not like that. Cover its eyes and hold it down. The chicken wriggled and squirmed in an attempt to escape._

_"Next, bring up your ax and make sure that it's in the right position. An eleven year old Grimmjow struggled slightly with the ax but, managed to bring it up and positioned it over the neck. He looked at his mother and waited for the next instructions. He felt bad for the chicken and tried not to concentrate on its rapid heart beats._

_"Kay, now swiftly bring down your ax to its neck." Grimmjow hesitated for a moment before bringing down his ax. The chickens' loud clucking halted and an abundant amount of blood sprayed everywhere. Grimmjow panicked and let go of the lifeless body. The body slumped down the stump and began to twitch. A lot as a matter of fact. It was then, that the eleven year old decided that he never wanted to do that again._

I shook away the memory and walked behind Nnoitra and Ulquiorra. We followed Norah towards the small barn. I looked at the small rabbit and saw that it was staring back at me with big eyes. I looked back towards the barn and continued walking. I know I decided that I never wanted to do this again but, it had to be done.

"Yo! Are ya even listenin to me?" I looked around and saw that we were already in the barn and that Ulquiorra had his rabbit in a bloody sack. Unfortunately, so did Nnoitra.

_What the hell? Did I space out or something?_

"Dude are ya even okay? You're getting all pale again."

"I'm fine, trust me." I walked towards the stump and placed the rabbit down; holding its small body firmly. It's heart began to race as I picked up the ax and I slightly winced.

_THUNK!_

Its heartbeat stopped and its head rolled down. Norah walked over to me and handed me a brown sack.

"Well if I'd known that you were good at this type of stuff, I would've asked you to help me with the re-"

"Yeah whatever, let's just get out of here." I grumbled as I stuffed the now heavy body into the small sack. I stalked out with Nnoitra and Ulquiorra in tow towards the house.

"Bro, you've done this before? Who fuckin taught you this type of shit?"

"My mom taught me." Nnoitra raised an eyebrow at me and was about to say something else, but Norah beat him to it.

"Where is your mother, sweetheart?"

"My mother is dead." Nnoitra looked at the ground and seemed like he got the memo. Unfortunately, Norah didn't.

"I'm sure your mother is looking after you from above. Your mother brought you to us." I stopped for a moment and looked up towards the upstairs window. Carl was watching us and he frowned at me, before smirking and walked somewhere else.

_He's planning something_

I looked back at Nnoitra, who had noticed as well and nodded towards me. We went inside and dumped our sacks on the floor. We were about to go find Aiden and the girls but, Norah stopped us.

"Hold on you two! You still need to skin the rabbits for dinner!" Next to me, Nnoitra paled and looked over at me.

_You've got to be frickin kidding me_

We peeled and cleaned the damn rabbits. Well, Ulquiorra and I did. Nnoitra ended up throwing up and got to lay on the couch. While we did that, the girls peeled potatoes and chopped carrots. I saw Nel once or twice but, she kept moving about with Lilinette. Speaking of which, the kid was strangely quiet and was always around Norah.

Dinner wasn't as awkward as I thought it would be. There was a lot of talking and everything seemed like a normal family dinner. Afterwards, Nnoitra got talked into fixing a door or a leak. It was fine, until Carl cornered me.

"I want you to leave this house. You are corrupting my girls and I don't want you here. If you choose to ignore me and stay, I'm going to have to _cleanse_ you." I stared at him, a bit shocked.

"Cleanse? What the hell do you mean by that?" I asked, anger rising with every word. He just shrugged.

"Most don't survive a cleansing ritual, so I highly recommend you to be gone by dawn." With that, he began to ascend the stairs. I watched him with wide eyes.

_Just when I thought things were going to go smoothly..._

The sound of the floorboards creaking behind me brought me out of my thoughts. I turned around quickly and saw Nnoitra standing behind me. Ulquiorra was close by as well.

"It's time."


	14. On the Precipice of Defeat

**Enjoy!:3**

* * *

"It's time." I said calmly to Nnoitra and Ulquiorra. They nodded quickly and we waited until we heard Carl's door lock. We sprinted up the stairs as quietly as we could and ran into the bedroom where Nnoitra and I slept in last night. Ulquiorra packed some of his belongings and I woke Aiden up. The kid had already been fast asleep and had a new bruise on his cheek.

"Hey, Aiden wake up!" I whispered loudly and shook him a bit. He jolted up and had a panicked look on his face. He finally saw me and Nnoitra standing next to him and slightly relaxed.

"W-what's going on?" He asked not so quietly and I saw Nnoitra flinch next to me.

"Aiden you need to get up, we're leaving." As soon as I said this to him, he perked up happily and began to put his torn shoes on.

"You didn't forget your promise!" He said happily and made to hug me.

"Yeah, yeah kid. Whatever." I muttered as I held him away at arms length. I turned to look at Nnoitra.

"I'm gonna go down to the basement and get Nel and Lilinette. I want you to go and start the SUV. Ulquiorra, I want you to keep an eye out in case Norah or Carl show up. I just hope that I don't have to drag Lilinette's ass out of here against her will." We went down the stairs quietly and Nnoitra held the door open so that Aiden could run out. Instantly, the porch lights turned on and illuminated the whole area.

"Remember to stick to the shadows!" I hissed at them and then it was just Ulquiorra and me.

"I just want to thank you for this opportunity. You have no idea how much this means to Aiden and I." He said quietly as he stared at Nnoitra's and Aiden's figures running towards the SUV.

"Don't thank me yet. We still gotta get out of this hell hole." I carefully opened the basement door and went down, stopping every once in a while. Ulquiorra held it open, that way we wouldn't be so loud when we ran out. Even though the lights were off, I couldn't risk being seen or heard by anybody else. So I crept down and began to crawl. The problem was, I didn't know which was Nel's mattress.

_Shit, this is going to be trickier than I thought._

The good thing was that there was a small window where the porch lights flooded in slightly. I crawled low and lifted my head towards a random bed.

_Fuck it, I can't even see their faces. I might as well stand up and hope that they don't notice me._

I stood up and was now able to see them better. Not far from me, I made out a familiar shade of sea green hair. Next to her was Lilinette, who seemed to be fast asleep much like Aiden had been. I tip-toed towards Nel and crawled onto her mattress, accidentally shaking it badly. Which caused Nel to wake up...and punch me directly in the face. She was about to punch me in the face again and that's when I decided to speak up.

"Nel it's me, chill!" I hissed at her and she finally recognized me.

"Grimmjow? What are you doing here?" She whispered in a surprised tone, "I thought we were leaving tomorrow morning?"

"Key word there is _were_. We gotta go now." I whispered and she began to get up.

"_Right now_?" She asked skeptically.

"Yeah, Nnoitra is outside waiting for us in the SUV so we can get the hell out of here. Carl says that I'm corrupting his girls and that he's going to _cleanse_ me if I don't leave." I said quickly so that she could get the message. Fortunately, she did.

"He threatened to _kill_ you?!" She hissed and I stood up.

"Yeah. So... we gotta go like, right now." She was about to stand up when Lilinette spoke.

"Are you being serious, sharkface?" She asked me as she sat up. I looked at her seriously.

"Would I lie to you, kid? I'm not about to start lying to you and I sure as hell won't with this. If yer gonna stick with us, you gotta come along. Your dad would be pissed if I left you here." I said and hoped that she didn't start to argue with me.

"I'll go with you!" I suddenly heard and my eyes widened as Melinda sat up and shocked the hell out of me. All of us I think. I looked away for a moment and wondered if I really should let her come along. Nel got up and reached for her street clothes and I began to make my way towards the stairs.

"Lilinette get your stuff." I heard her say to Lilinette and was met with silence.

'_Damn, I hope she doesn't start arguing with Nel. We need to get out of here now, before the other girls get Carl's attention._' The sound of rustling clothes reached my ears, along with the sound of many bed springs squeaking as the others girls sat up.

Soon I saw Lilinette's small figure pass me and begin going up the stairs. I hurried behind Nel and inwardly flinched when I heard another pair of footsteps behind me. Ulquiorra was at the door and ushered Lilinette and Melinda out the kitchen door. Nel was the last one out and gently closed the door shut.

"You guys go on ahead, I have to look for something." I turned to look back at her.

"What the hell are you going to possibly look for right _now_?" I asked her impatiently and she looked back at me seriously.

"I'm not going to leave her." I stared at her confused, but followed her anyways.

"Hurry he's going to notice soon." I heard Ulquiorra say as he got onto the SUV. I followed Nel through the darkness and noticed something different about her. I'm not sure what it was, but before I could comment on it, she stopped near the side of the porch and began to reach into the bottom of some dead bushes. Light mewing reached my ears suddenly and Nel got up, cradling something small and fury.

"We came all the way over here for a _kitten_?" I asked incredulously and balked when she handed me the furry kitten.

"Hold her will you? I still need to get something from here." When she turned around to give me cat, I figured out what seemed different. She noticed that I was staring at her.

"What?" She asked suspiciously and I just shrugged.

"Your hair looks nice in a bun. That's all." I asked and she began to blush and _then_ I smirked.

"And yer long ass nightgown is pretty damn transparent if ya ask me." I drawled and her blush increased as she tried to cover herself.

"You damn pervert! I should've just let Carl kill you!" She squawked and I was about to say something else, when the front door suddenly slammed open. Causing me to jump and drop the kitten. It mewled loudly and stared up at me. Carl was coming outside along with Norah, who was carrying a shotgun.

"What is going on?" He said in very relaxed and chill tone. He continued walking towards us and stopped a couple feet away from us. Norah was right next to him and she looked pissed. And like always, someone has to cut me off.

"Nothing, we just wanted to leave." Nel responded calmly before I could say anything. Then, he smirked dangerously at her.

"It's a very dangerous place out there for a beautiful young woman," Then, he turned to look at me and frowned, "Especially if you're leaving with him! He's going to get you all killed!"

"He's been possessed by the devil!" Norah spat out angrily and raised her gun. Nel suddenly raised her hands up and took a step forward.

"Hey, take it easy Norah. You might shoot someone." I looked at her with a _no shit sherlock_ expression and also held my hands up.

"He _must_ leave! He has never been welcomed here!" Carl yelled out as he pointed at me.

"We just want to leave damn it! What part of 'I want to leave' do you not fucking understand!?" I yelled out to him angrily as I took a step forward too.

"You're putting my girls in danger!" He said and took the shotgun from Norah. I saw Nel glance towards the car and then back towards Carl.

"We're not _your_ girls," She said slowly and calmly, "We don't want any trouble. We just want to go." Carl stared at her for a moment before throwing his head back and began to laugh vehemently.

"That is very funny but, he has you very confused!" He then got all serious and turned towards me, "Commander Jaegerjaquez, I highly recommend that you release my boys and girls, leave before I make you." He said calmly as he raised his gun at me. Norah looked shocked when Carl revealed my identity. Well, partial identity anyways.

"I'm sorry but, I seem to have misplaced your _slaves_." I said calmly, even though I was getting pissed off. I guess Carl had had enough of our shit, raised his shotgun and aimed at me. I think Lilinette screamed inside of the SUV, but no one got out.

Suddenly, Nel got in front of me and surprised the hell out of us all.

"Wait!" She yelled out but, Carl decided to aim at her instead. Next to him, Norah gasped sharply and that's when it seemed clearer now.

Just as I thought, Nel noticed and took off in a sprint towards Norah, making sure to make an arch. While she did that, Carl tried to keep his aim at her. _He_ had forgotten that I was still there. I ran towards him quickly as Nel tackled Norah, sending them both to the ground. Norah screamed and Nel punched her. By then, Carl had reached Nel and slammed the butt of his gun against the back of her head, knocking her out slightly. By then, I too had already reached Carl.

He noticed me and the only thing that I had managed to hit, was the side of his mouth. It worked actually, he stumbled a bit and I took this opportunity to take his gun away. I swiftly delivered a kick to his stomach, effectively knocking him down.I aimed the gun at his abdomen, but suddenly thought better of it.

_Why not blow his fuckin brains out like he was about to do to you?_

There it was again, that little voice from back then. Before I found my dead mother. I quickly shook my head, but still aimed at his face anyways. Norah screamed as I was about to pull the trigger with a smirk.

"Nighty, night bitch."

_BANG!_

_SPLAT!_

I slightly grimaced when bloody chunks of his face splattered on me. Norah was screaming bloody murder and Nel was starting to move her head slightly. Not wasting anymore time, I grabbed Nel's arm and began to pull her up.

"Nel! Get the hell up!" I shouted at her and she slightly got up. She looked over at Carl or, what was left of his face anyways. Norah had blood running down her face from where Nel had punched her and was now crouched over Carl, crying and screaming her head off. Nel's eyes widened and she looked up at me.

"What happened?"

"It's obvious ain't it? I shot him." She looked at me and got up. On our way to the SUV, I picked up the damn kitten that Nel had insisted on taking with us, while she grabbed the shotgun that I had used on Carl.

Just as we were about to round the SUV, a fucking tiger stood there. It growled at us threateningly and began stalking towards us. However, Nel aimed her gun at the ground next to it and shot. The shot managed to freak the tiger out and it ran off. I opened the door and noticed that Nel was going back towards the side of the ranch.

"Where the hell are you going!" I yelled towards her and she waved me off.

"Don't worry about it! Just get in!" I stared at her and got in next to Nnoitra. He looked out his rear view window.

"What the hell is she doing?" He muttered and our eyes widened a minute later, when the back of the SUV opened. She threw something in and slammed it shut. In the background, we heard Norah yell something out and some of the girls had come outside. They were wailing and screaming around Carl's dead body. It disgusted me really, I sure as hell didn't even feel bad for him. The bastard got what he deserved for what he was doing to Aiden and everybody else. I opened my door and half hung out. When Nel got closer, I grabbed her arm and pulled her in. She didn't even have time to shut the door, when Nnoitra suddenly threw the SUV in reverse.

"What the hell Nnoi!" I yelled at him as he tried whipping the car around.

"Go! Go! Go!" Nel yelled at him frantically as she pressed her hands against the dashboard.

"I'm trying!" He yelled out and I looked at Nel, who was currently sitting on my lap and trying to close the door.

"Why the hell are you guys freaking out?" I asked and Nnoitra looked over at me with a _Really dude?_ expression on his face.

"One of the girls has a gun and she's pointing it at us, ya idiot!" He yelled at me and slammed on the gas pedal.

_Oh_

A shot fired but missed us entirely. Nnoitra swerved the car to the right on the gravel road, causing the entire SUV to sway. Melinda and Lilinette yelped in the back and Nnoitra continued to speed down the road.

* * *

We were on the highway and Nnoitra kept driving at around 80 or 90 mph, even if we were far away from the ranch. It was easier to breathe and just as I was getting comfortable, Nel leaned back against me. I guess that she had forgotten that she had been sitting on my lap and she straightened back up.

"You saved me again, you know." I said to her and she turned her head to look at me from the side.

"We can call it even." She said and got up off of me and climbed over the center console.

"Hey Nnoi? Can you pullover when you have the chance? Kinda want to get out of these rags and put my real clothes on." She said and Nnoitra looked over at me. I shrugged at him and he continued to stare at the road.

"Yeah whatever, lemme just get a bit farther away."

"Do you even know where you're going?" I muttered towards him and he shrugged at me.

"Not really." I rolled my eyes at him and turned to look at the blank landscape around us.

About an hour or so later, Nnoitra pulled over and us men made a dash towards a cluster of bushes to pee while the girls changed into other clothes.

"Dude, you've got it bad." I looked over at him and frowned.

"What the hell are you talking about?" He smirked at me and nodded down towards the kitten, that had followed me around since we got out of the car.

"For one, she handed you the fur ball to carry while she got to carry the shotgun. If it were me, I would've left it at the ranch. Next, you two kissed before the worship thingy started and walked in holdin hands-"

"I'm gonna cut you off there Nnoi. First of all, I'm not cruel enough to leave a four week old kitten to die. Second of all, we didn't kiss like you claim to say. She lightly pressed her lips against my cheek. That was it. As for the holding hands, she surprised me when I went in." I looked towards the SUV and noticed that they were all dressed and talking about something.

_I wonder..._

"...I still think you have it bad and just admit it Grimm-"

"I wonder what Melinda is telling Nel. Seems serious if ya ask me." I said as I cut him off and began walking towards them. I looked back towards Nnoitra and Aiden, who was now holding the kitten.

_Wait a minute, where the hell is Ulquiorra?_

I looked over at Melinda and saw that someone was next to her. That someone turned out to be Ulquiorra.

_How the hell does he do that?_

I walked closer to them and managed to catch a few words,

"Carl wanted to cleanse Grimmjow. He wanted to have sex with him too?" I gagged at this but continued listening.

"I don't know what actually happens during the male cleansing rituals," I heard Mel answer Nel, "But the last time Carl _cleansed_ a man, it was Sarah's older brother. We had to bury him right after."

"Are you serious!?" I walked up to them and accidentally scared Melinda, "I narrowly escaped getting raped, again?" Nel looked over at me and opened the door for Melinda and Aiden.

"I don't know why you're getting all worked up by this. You were almost killed by a bunch of White Cloak soldiers a few days back. Not to mention that you easily escaped from a rapist months back. Rape seems a bit mundane in comparison to getting taken to Aizen at this point." She said jokingly. Meanwhile, Nnoitra gawked at me and Ulquiorra looked a bit confused.

"You never told me _that_!" I looked over at Nel who just shrugged at me.

"Why is it that every time you open your big ass mouth, you end up telling everybody my damn business?" I said to her through gritted teeth and she just laughed.

"Yo Grimmjow, why didn't you tell me abo-"

"It's clearly none of your business Nnoitra." While that sounded a bit rude, I didn't really feel like talking about that yet. What am I supposed to say? I got shot with an arrow? That my face got sliced from cheek to ear?

"Kay! Geez, I didn't know it was such a sore subject for ya." Nnoitra muttered and Ulquiorra got into the SUV.

"I'm gonna take a nap. You can drive this leg and Nel can drive the next one. If that's okay with ya." I nodded and Nnoitra tossed me the keys.

"Thanks Nnoi. Sorry 'bout snapping at ya." He just shrugged and opened his door.

"It's okay. I probably would've done the same thing." He said chuckling and got on. I drove a bit and the atmosphere seemed to have calmed a bit. Nel was staring at the barren wasteland around us and every once in a while, we would pass by a sad looking house. Lilinette was in an uncharacteristic silence and Nel tried to make small talk with her. The only words that she used to answer with were no, yes or I don't know.

Eventually, Nel gave up and everybody had fallen asleep. The first rays of the sun were coming up and it was pretty fucking quiet, so I decided to break it.

"So... Do you know where we're going?" I asked Nel and she turned to look at me oddly.

"You're the one driving, silly" she said and I gave her the closest thing to a smile.

"Yeah well, aren't we on some mythical quest to find the base in Idaho?" I said jokingly and she continued to stare out the window.

"It's not like we're looking for a way to get to Rome." She said, brushing me off.

"So? I used hyperbole. You knew what I meant." I said casually.

"I already explained it you Grimmjow, we go west and maybe we'll run into some soldiers." Trying to change the subject, I decided to ask her about her past.

"So why exactly were you at the diner that day when I met you?" There was a far away look on her face and for a second I wondered if it was a good idea to ask her.

"Even when my father was in charge of the resistance at first, he didn't want to draw much attention so he decided to get a normal job. I tagged along of course, and things were going great. Mable allowed me to work there as a waitress and my dad was a cook." I looked at her for a moment.

"How come I never saw you whenever I went?"

"I worked a night shift, if that helps any."

"I use to go there with some of my friends after winning a football game on Friday nights. I should've at least seen you once, right?"

"Maybe you were too busy celebrating to have noticed me. Or, I was taking someone else's order." She said smiling. We drove in silence for a while before I asked her another question.

"So.. How exactly did you meet Nnoitra?" She smiled for a moment before answering.

"Nnoitra was a waiter there for a couple of weeks." At the image of seeing my bug-looking friend in a waiter outfit, I couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Wow, I had no idea that he was a waiter at Mable's, much less that they even had uniforms available in his size." I said laughing. The sky had started to take on its normal blue hue and everyone was still asleep.

"What were you doing at Mable's that day?" She asked me.

"My mom had sent me to fetch some groceries and by the time I reached town, it was already somewhat destroyed."

"We didn't even have a chance of fighting back when they broke through the windows. My dad had been cooking someone's breakfast when he got shot in the back."

"Where were you?" She looked down at her palms and had a sad look on her face.

"A few minutes before they raided the place, Mable had sent me to the storage room to get some stuff. When I was walking out, there was an explosion that caused the roof and some pans to fall on me. The last thing that I saw, was my father getting shot..." She trailed off and stared out her window.

"I was so weak. If I hadn't been so weak, my father wouldn't have died. Starrk would still be here-"

"Stop blaming yourself. Do you see me acting that way for what happened that night? Or when my mother died? No, it wasn't your fault that your father died, or that Starrk is gone. Both times you were ambushed and there was nothing you could about it." She stared at me with wide eyes and looked down at her feet.

"Do you miss her?" I stared at her for a moment, before looking at the road in front of us.

"Every moment of every day." She stared at me sadly and slightly whispered to herself, but I still heard her.

"I miss mine too." I bit the inside of my cheek before asking,

"Who's Derek?" She stiffened and her eyes widened.

"How do you-?"

"You were kinda sayin his name in your sleep the night before Nnoitra and Lilinette showed up. You sounded kind of sad. Who was he?"

"That isn't really any of your business."

"I still want to know. Was he your boyfriend or somethin?" I asked curiously and she shook her head.

"To me, he might've been. To him, I was just a way for him to be deemed as one of us. I was an idiot to think that we were crazy for each other. In the end, I ended up getting hurt and him and his brother escaped to join the White Cloaks. I could continue talking, but I don't think I'd ever be able to stop."

She stared out into the distance as she said this and a million more questions ran through my head. She looked at me again, "You already killed Sean and I'm sure that Derek knows by now. I'm just going to say this now, we have to be on our guards at all times. He's going to find us one day and he's going to try and make us pay." She may have sounded brave but, I could practically smell the fear on her.

"Are you afraid of him?" I asked her after a moment. She shook her head slightly.

"Not of him. It's what he'll _do_, that bothers me."

"I'm not afraid of him. Him or Aizen." She arched an eyebrow at me.

"You of all people have no idea what they're capable of doing. _Especially_ if they're together."

"Whatever. I'm not going down without a fight." We continued driving in silence yet again, before she broke the silence.

"Thank you." I looked at her in bewilderment.

"For what?"

"For being here for me. You're the first person that I've actually been comfortable with in telling all of this."

"You're better at all of this than me. Personally, I think you should have been the next commander instead of me."

"Hardly." She said laughing.

"No seriously, you are better at pretty much everything than me."

"Well that just _might_ be true." We laughed together and things actually seemed to get better between us.

But like always, something has to happen and ruin the mood.

The SUV suddenly started to decelerate and I pounded on the gas pedal frantically.

_What the fuck happened!?_

Then the SUV slowed to a complete stop.


End file.
